From Office Manager to Drug Testing Expert: Nina M. French on Her 30-Year Career
Workplace drug testing is usually framed as a way to catch the wrong people. Nina M. French has spent her entire career arguing it should do the opposite.
In a recent episode of Behind the Screens: Conversations with Background Screening Pros, host Les Rosen sat down with Nina, a drug testing expert witness with Capwell Consulting Group. Les introduced her as a true subject matter expert, and the conversation shows why. She has worked in drug testing and occupational health since her first job out of college, and she now looks at the industry from the outside in.
Her central message is one every employer, attorney, and screening professional should hear: the goal is not to find the bad actors. It is to find good people and build workplaces that keep them.
From Office Manager to Drug Testing Authority
Ms. French did not set out to work in drug testing. She earned a degree in educational studies, and when she was deciding between teaching and something else, she answered a newspaper ad for a summer office manager. She was, in her words, motivated by rent money. The employer turned out to be a startup medical review office, and she was the 13th person hired.
She never left the field. As the company grew, she took on whatever the business needed, from product development and operations to the books. The company expanded from medical review into laboratory services, collections, and partnerships with background screening providers. It was later acquired by First American and eventually became First Advantage, where she spent nearly 22 years across the company’s many iterations.
When attorneys ask about her credentials, Nina is direct. She is not a toxicologist or a lawyer. She has simply done this work longer than many people in the field have been working at all. As she put it, “you become an expert basically because it’s seeped through your pores at some point because you’ve seen everything.”
That depth of real-world experience is what makes her valuable in litigation. Today she splits her time between expert witness work with Capwell Consulting Group and advising large human capital management companies on how the screening industry actually operates.
“We Are Not Here to Find the Bad Guys”
Ms. French credits a handful of mentors for shaping her view, including a memorable dinner early in her career with a physician who founded the Haight-Ashbury Clinic in San Francisco. Hearing his history of drug use and treatment in America changed how she thought about the purpose of testing.
Her takeaway is that drug testing programs began alongside employee assistance programs designed to support people. In her view, the industry has drifted from that. “Our job is actually not to find the bad actors,” she said. “Our job is to get the good actors and then create workplaces that support them and retain them.”
Drug Testing as One Piece of a Larger System
Nina describes a realization that came from attending her first PBSA conference. Drug testing is not a standalone function. As she explained, “Drug testing is a piece of screening. Screening is a piece of human capital management. Human capital management is a piece of profitability and success of an organization.”
For employers, that framing matters. A drug test is not just a compliance checkbox. It is one input in a larger effort to hire well, support employees, and reduce turnover. For attorneys, it is a reminder that testing programs should be evaluated in the context of the whole hiring and workplace health system, not in isolation.
Why the Industry Is at a Crossroads
She believes technology, human behavior, and employment are changing in ways the industry has not experienced before. People entering the workforce today are unlikely to stay with one employer for two decades, or even remain in one industry.
Her question for screening and testing professionals: how do you support employees across a shorter, more varied career journey, and how does the industry grow in that environment?
Ms. French has seen the industry’s technology evolve dramatically. Early in her career, she spent Thursday nights ripping the edges off dot-matrix printouts of drug test results, separating and folding pages, and stuffing envelopes so a stack could go to physicians for sign-off on positive results. Today, data and trend analysis can show where programs should go next.
She also offers a caution drawn from experience. Speaking about technological advances she said, “sometimes the fix is worse than the problem you had to start with.” Professionals buried in daily compliance, operations, or product work rarely have the time to step back and ask whether a new tool solves the real problem. Developments to meet the changing needs of today’s workforce need to take advantage of today’s technology, but not lose sight of the fact that data tells one part of the story experience tells another but inter interaction with the individuals who are affected and the clients you are serving is critical and is often seen as the smallest part, but in her opinion is the single most important.
Nina deliberately avoids viewing the industry only through an insider’s eyes. Her expert witness work and outside consulting have shown her how much of what screening professionals consider “first grade math” is unfamiliar to people outside the field. Those lessons flow back into her work, highlighting what the industry does well and where it can improve.
Career Advice from Nina M. French
Nina closed the interview with guidance for professionals entering or advancing in the screening and testing industry.
Close Your Mouth and Listen
“There are a lot of smart people out there,” she said. Her first piece of advice is to listen, and to find trusted colleagues and hold them close.
Network to Learn Who to Trust
She was clear that real networking is not shallow. “Networking isn’t the fake schmoozing piece of it,” she said. “It is really learning who to trust, learning why you trust them, learning how you can be valuable to them, and then how they’re valuable to you.” She also suggests looking at whether leaders have colleagues who have followed them from job to job, which is rarely an accident.
Apply the 51% Rule
Ms. French lives by what she calls the 51% rule. If you like your job more than half the time, it is worth sticking with. If it drops below that more often than not, it is time to have a conversation about what needs to change or where you should go.
Help the Newcomers
Finally, she urges experienced professionals to teach the fundamentals to the next generation. New professionals see the work with fresh eyes, and they can teach veterans things they have not considered.
Life Beyond the Screens
Outside of work, Ms. French reads every day and has kept an unbroken streak for nearly a year, travels frequently with her partner and family, and enjoys learning games like mahjong and canasta. She also has a growing bourbon collection, which she admits makes her more of a buyer than a drinker.
Nina’s stories and perspective are best heard in her own words. Listen to the full conversation with Les Rosen on Behind the Screens:
Watch on YouTube or Listen to the podcast.
Work with Nina M. French and Capwell Consulting Group
Nina M. French provides expert witness services in drug and alcohol testing, workplace impairment, and occupational health matters, drawing on decades of real-world industry experience. Learn more about Nina’s background and our drug testing expert witness services.
Have a case that involves drug or alcohol testing? Contact Capwell Consulting Group to discuss how we can support your team.
About Capwell Consulting Group
Capwell Consulting Group is a nationally recognized litigation support and risk mitigation consulting firm specializing in highly regulated industries. Our firm provides industry-leading guidance, research, reporting, and expert witness testimony for legal proceedings involving employment screening & negligent hiring, FCRA litigation, drug & alcohol testing, and medical device quality and regulatory compliance matters. With over three decades of industry experience, Capwell Consulting Group is a trusted advisor to employers, attorneys, and consumers around the globe.
The information published within is provided for educational purposes only. The information is not intended to or constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials are published for general informational purposes only and not considered the views of a particular expert or consultant of Capwell Consulting Group, LLC. © 2026