FranU Alumna Haleigh Davis Builds a Career in Forensics

What started out as a Google search led alumna Haleigh Davis to working at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.

After getting a degree in Spanish and then pursuing teaching, Davis was struggling to find her passion. Eventually, she realized her love for forensics. 

Now, she’s nearly five years into her career as a crime analyst in the toxicology unit at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge.

“I test blood/urine kits for alcohol and drugs. I also work as a secondary analyst on the crime scene team,” Davis explained.

Her work is highly technical and precise. Each test she runs plays a role in investigations across the state.

How did she get here? She searched online for universities that would support her journey, found FranU’s Biology program and chose the Biochemical Analysis track.

FranU’s in-depth lab classes relating to chemistry and instrumentation really prepared me for the work I do today. My job is 90% inside the lab working with sensitive instruments and I feel like I got a good idea of how it would be from the FranU lab classes,” Davis said.

The skills she relies on today are the ones she practiced repeatedly as a student.

“Basic laboratory skills are used on a daily basis, which I learned from my lab classes at FranU,” she explained. “Safety inside the lab is very important. I also use the skills I learned from the instrumentational lab classes that I took at FranU. I learned a lot about chromatography from FranU and I use that daily for my job.”

Faculty mentorship played an equally important role in building her confidence and work ethic.

“Dr. Dixie Gautreaux and Dr. Natalie Lenard had a strong impact on my professional journey. Dr. G’s lab classes were not only interactive in the lab, but she made sure that I learned the concepts of what was going on,” Davis said.

Even in demanding lectures, she felt that professors were invested in her understanding.

“Even though I didn’t take lab classes from Dr. Lenard, her classes were set up for interaction,” she explained. “The material she taught was tough, but she always made sure that there were opportunities to fully understand it. She did in class group activities and allowed us to ask questions whenever we had them.”

What sets FranU apart, she says, are the relationships built alongside the coursework.

FranU stands out because of the personal relationships that can be made not only because the classes are smaller in number, but because the staff there really want to make connections with their students.” She continued, “The staff care about what they are teaching, which in turn helps students learn better, and that has helped me abundantly in my career.”

Since graduating, Davis has grown steadily within the crime lab, advancing from crime analyst 1 to crime analyst 3. Crime analyst 4 is the highest level in her unit, and she is determined to continue progressing.

“I am doing well and growing more each day,” said Davis. “My goals moving forward are to become an analyst 4, get trained in the analyses that I haven’t been trained to do yet and to teach others, especially those who come to shadow/intern at the lab.” 

Forensics is careful, disciplined work built on a strong foundation. That foundation was formed for Davis in FranU’s labs, shaped by professors who go the extra mile and strengthened through relationships that last.