Gorniak brings change to Coroner’s office

By Donna Marbury
Contributing Writer
Columbus Post

What honored Dr. Jan Gorniak more than being elected to the Franklin County Coroner’s office is being elected on the same ticket as President Barack Obama. “It was amazing that of all the times to run for office, this is it. That was an inspiration to me to do better,” Gorniak said. “I go to conferences and people see me as a representative of Franklin County, a Black woman, and I am taken seriously.”
Gorniak is Franklin County’s first Black coroner, and was elected on November 4, 2008, after working as deputy coroner for Franklin County for two and a half years. She is Franklin County’s first coroner who is also a forensic pathologist. As much as she is managing the office’s $3 million budget and staff of 28, she is also doing autopsies. In November, she defeated Dr. Elaine Lewis, whose husband had been coroner for the past eight years and who for 17 years has managed a private health care practice. Gorniak ran on a platform of change, and thought that Franklin County needed more of a hands-on approach. She said she has an open-door policy and provides all her workers with her cell phone is turned on all hours of the day.
“My day is a lot longer, but I thought the office needed someone in the leadership role all of the time,” said Gorniak. “I have my hand in every single case, and I know how things work. So I think it gives people more confidence in this office than before.”
Most people equate Gorniak’s work with popular TV shows like Law & Order or CSI, but she is quick to point out the differences. “Not everyone who dies in Franklin County comes through the coroner’s office. Everything they do on television is entertainment. We can’t do that here,” Gorniak explained. “We’re not crime fighters. We investigate deaths, and we can’t do that in 45 minutes.”
Originally from Bronx, New York, Gorniak said that at first she thought she wanted to be an emergency room doctor, but was always fascinated by forensic science. Gorniak worked as an emergency medical technician, as she attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and received her medical education at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine. “The emergency room was too chaotic for me,” she said. “I realized that I liked the idea of testifying in court, doing autopsies and interacting with doctors. A month before graduating, I decided to study forensic pathology.”
Being one of only three black women in her medical school class of 250, Gorniak said she never entertained the idea that she couldn’t be what she wanted to be. “As a black woman, I never worried about competing with men. Medicine is a male-dominated field and I always knew I had to work hard for it.”
Gorniak said she intends to educate people more about the Franklin County Coroner’s office, which includes creating an educational pamphlet for families that answers questions and by doing more outreach to hospitals. She also plans to hire a counselor who will help people to cope with unexpected deaths that come through the coroner’s office.
“When people die suddenly, there is no preparation,” Gorniak said. “People grieve differently, and I am not trained to help people with a lot of their questions. Sometimes people who deal with violent deaths suffer from grief that leads to suicide.”
A childhood friend of Gorniak’s died unexpectedly last summer during the height of her campaign. She said that as she managed the grief, she came up with the idea of offering counseling services for the Franklin County Coroner’s office. “I had never dealt with death like this on a personal level. From then on, I knew we had to give people something more to help them understand the process of what we do.”
Gorniak said ultimately, she wants to raise the level of awareness and education of the coroner’s office. “I have been going to a lot more conferences and talking directly with doctors from Children’s Hospital, OSU Medical Center and Grant Hospital, among the other hospitals in the county,” she said. “I believe that people need to know I’m here and see my face so that we are doing our jobs at the highest level.”

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