BRANDON ELKINS

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Adjunct Instructor of Criminal Justice
belkins@cumberland.edu
Adjunct Faculty
The Millard and JJ Oakley School of Humanities, Education and the Arts
A.A.S., Walters State Community College
B.A., Cumberland College
M.S., University of the Cumberlands

Brandon Elkins is an adjunct instructor of Criminal Justice at Cumberland University. Mr. Elkins has been a Special Agent Criminal Investigator with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) since 2013. He is currently assigned to the TBI Criminal Investigation Division in Knoxville, TN where he oversees TBI’s Cold Case Homicide Initiative.

Prior to serving with the TBI, Special Agent Elkins served as Captain of the Criminal Investigation Division for the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office in Jacksboro, TN.

He holds an Associate of Applied Science from Walters State Community College, Bachelor of Arts Degree from Cumberland College, and a Master of Science in Justice Administration from the University of the Cumberlands.

During his career, he has investigated criminal offenses of all kinds, including many homicides, and has a passion for cold case homicide investigations. Mr. Elkins has been successful in identifying five unidentified individuals that were located across the state of Tennessee beginning in the 1970s.

Mr. Elkins has completed hundreds of hours of law enforcement and criminal investigation related training in his career. He is a graduate of the National Forensics Academy, TBI Basic Criminal Investigation School, the TBI Director’s Academy, and is a Nationally Certified Public Manager. He also serves as an instructor for Interview and Interrogation, Cold Case Homicide Investigation, Close Quarter Command and Control, Homicide Investigations, and Crime Scene Investigations for the TBI Special Agent Academy.

He was recognized as one of the “Forty under Forty” by the LaFollette Press in 2017, the recipient of the 2017 Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement from the US Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Tennessee, as the 2018 Special Agent of the Year by the Optimist Club of Knoxville, and the 2021 Tennessee Bureau of Investigation CID Special Agent of the Year. Mr. Elkins was featured on the Investigation Discovery show “See No Evil” in 2018 for a complex murder investigation he conducted in rural East Tennessee. He is also a member of the International Homicide Investigator’s Association.