This is a trip from how Harwood made it from the bottom of the class, to the elected position of Coroner for Peoria County.

 About the Speaker: Jamie Harwood is a Registered Nurse with over 23 years of nursing experience.  Jamie graduated from Methodist School of Nursing in 1997 with a Diploma in Nursing, and in 2015, graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing.  While studying at Penn State, Jamie completed course work in Forensic Nursing, and Certified as a Forensic Nurse in 2016.  He has spent most of his nursing career in Emergency Medicine, Trauma and Critical Care.  Jamie is currently one of 10 Registered Nurses in Illinois who is also an elected Coroner.Jamie is currently the 1^st  Vice President of the Illinois Coroner and Medical Examiners Board.  He is a stakeholder for the Peoria Recovery Project for overdose prevention and survivor support; he is the Chairperson of the Tri-County Death Review Board, investigating deaths related to victims of abuse or neglect; he is an active Committeeman for the Illinois Violent Death Reporting System sponsored by Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, a group that supports research in the investigation of all violent deaths; as a living kidney donor, Jamie sits on the Community Advisory Board with the Gift of Hope, and the Gift of Hope Coroner Advisory Board of Illinois; Jamie is an active participant in Whitney’s Walk for suicide prevention, and was selected the Honorary Chair for the 2019 walk/run; Jamie was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus of Methodist College of Nursing for 2019, is a current board member of the College Board; Jamie is an active member of the Downtown Peoria Rotary Club, where he is the secretary of the board.

In his free time, Jamie likes to spend time with his husband Jonathan, and three kids, Hunter (20) Hope (17), and Jacob (3 1/2), as well as his extended family. He enjoys research in death investigations, continuing education, Penn State Football, Chicago Cubs baseball, traveling, reading, and an occasional karaoke song.