Dr. Craig Mallak is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology for NSU MD and serves as the Broward County Medical Examiner. He is responsible for providing comprehensive death investigation services in accordance with state laws and administrative codes along with meeting the standards of practice for the medical subspecialty. He is also the Director of Trauma Services for the County.
Dr. Mallak holds degrees in forensic sciences from Michigan State University and both law and medicine degrees from Creighton University. After medical school he accepted his commission as a Naval Officer and completed his internship at Naval Hospital Oakland. He was then assigned as a General Medical Officer with the United States Marine 3d Force Service Support Group in Okinawa, Japan and at Cubi Point in the Philippines. He returned to Naval Hospital Oakland for two years of his four year residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. Due to BRAC closure of the hospital, he completed his residency at the National Naval Medical Center. He then completed his forensic pathology fellowship at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. He is board certified in all three areas of study. He also holds privileges as a practicing attorney in the State of Nebraska.
Following training, Dr. Mallak was assigned as the Regional Armed Forces Medical Examiner at Naval Hospital Okinawa, Japan where he was responsible for death investigations throughout the Pacific area of operations. During this tour he was deployed to Kosovo in 1999 to assist the FBI with war crimes investigations. He also served as the hospital director of ancillary services including radiology, laboratory services, the pharmacy, and optometry throughout this tour.
He was then chosen by the U.S. Surgeon General to be assigned to Naval Personnel Command where he served as detailer for the nonsurgical specialist physicians in the United States Navy and maintained his clinical skills at the Shelby County Medical Examiner Office.
From 2002 thru 2012, he held the appointment as the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, with responsibility for the United States largest medical examiner’s office that included forensic pathology, anthropology, toxicology, and DNA identification registry with worldwide jurisdiction. He was responsible for assisting in the investigation of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia, investigating U.S. deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan, and identifying several high profile terrorists such as Saddam Hussein and his sons Uday and Qusay. He deployed on multiple missions to the theaters of combat. The office was also involved in investigation of the deaths of detainees. In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, and other civilian incidents, the office provided expertise to assist with the identification of the deceased and other forensic services.
During the war, Dr. Mallak required that every military death receive a full forensic investigation. The data gathered, analyzed, and the subsequent work with other Department of Defense units is credited with saving over 2,000 lives. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan is also the first time ever the U.S. fully accounted for all fallen/missing service members during a major conflict.
During the last three years as the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, he executed a Base Realignment and Closure Law mandated move of the of Medical Examiner System. With the disestablishment of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in the Washington D.C. area, he was responsible for building a $75 million facility, and establishing a new Command at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
He retired from the military with the rank of Navy Captain and assumed the position of Broward County Medical Examiner in July 2012.
Dr. Mallak has served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medical Examiners, the College of American Pathologists Forensic Pathology Committee, chaired the Path-Bio section of and is a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
He is married to the former Sue Catherine McDonald who is a teacher at the Sagemont Schools in Weston, Florida.