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Christina Pool, Class of 2020
First photo: earlier this year Christina decided she wanted to run a marathon (26.2 miles) at 26 years old (a play on the "Golden Birthday" idea). The official race she had planned to do was cancelled due to the pandemic, but on October 17, less than a week after turning 26, Christina completed her first marathon!
Second photo: during the pandemic, we've tried to support some local businesses that we love, Prairie Fire Winery being one of them. Dog-friendly and with outdoor seating, it's one of our go-to spots when the weather is nice.
Third photo: since relocating to Kansas, Corey, Christina, and Samoa welcomed a new little bundle of fur (and joy) to the family. Samoa loves her little sister Riley!
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Mariah Gleason, Class of 2017
Mariah has worked in hereditary cancer for Atrium Health’s Levine Cancer Institute since graduation in 2017. She enjoys helping patients understand the implications of genetics on cancer risk. She also loves being able to work with fellow alumni Alexandra Bailey and Katie Broyhill as well her other wonderful teammates. This summer she thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to co-develop (with Katie and teammate Aly Athens) a cancer genetics virtual experience for first year UNCG students. Mariah maintains an interest in psychiatric genetic counseling after interning with the Adapt Clinic during her training. This year, she served on the Psychiatric Special Interest Group’s Grant Award Committee. Mariah lives near Hickory, NC with her husband, Eric, and golden retriever, Ember. In her free time, she enjoys reading novels, baking new treats, and hiking with Eric and Ember.
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| Liz Francisco, Class of 2015
I do have a poster this year for NSGC! No picture available but the title isPerceptionsof Genetic Counseling and Testing in the Haitian Patient Population.I have been a telegenetic counselor for IntegratedGenetics for 2.5 years now. I was recently promoted to Senior Genetic Counseling and I am serving South Florida prenatal patients. I am fully remote and use webex to serve the community! I am also a remote supervisor for the Emory and USC genetic counseling programs. I adore being able to help students adapt to the world of telemedicine and the world of interpreters (which we use a lot in South Florida!) This has been incredibly useful during COVID in order to keep rotations running while students need to be remote. I also recently received the Distinguished Employee Award for this year from Integrated Genetics! My family and I recently relocated to Delaware to be close to my in-laws. We are enjoying exploring nature and settling into our new home.
Liz’s poster titled Perceptions of Genetic Counseling and Testing in the Haitian Patient Population will be at NSGC this year!
I have been a telegenetic counselor for Integrated Genetics for 2.5 years now. I was recently promoted to Senior Genetic Counseling and I am serving South Florida prenatal patients. I am fully remote and use webex to serve the community! I am also a remote supervisor for the Emory and USC genetic counseling programs. I adore being able to help students adapt to the world of telemedicine and the world of interpreters (which we use a lot in South Florida!) This has been incredibly useful during COVID in order to keep rotations running while students need to be remote. I also recently received the Distinguished Employee Award for this year from Integrated Genetics! My family and I recently relocated to Delaware to be close to my in-laws. We are enjoying exploring nature and settling into our new home.
I am pictured above with my husband Adam and our two sons, Calvin (3) and Jonah (1).
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Heather Rocha, Class of 2014
Heather continues to lead Geisinger’s Cancer Genetics Program and organizes a Lynch Syndrome Multidisciplinary Clinic. Her research interests include adherence to surveillance in hereditary cancer syndromes and innovative genetic counseling models. Heather’s family also welcomed Geisinger’s newest (and youngest) member of Genomics Counsel: Nathan, born in April 2020. Dan, Heather, Nathan, and dog, Ava, enjoy baking at home and hiking in the hills of central Pennsylvania. See photos above.
Heather was nominated for the Heart of Genetic Counseling award by one of her colleagues. The award ceremony for finalists, including Heather, was Nov 19!
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| Sara Wienke, Class of 2012
I am celebrating my second year working for Guardant Health as a Genomic Specialist. The world of somatic genetics is fascinating and fast moving and I love it. Constantly hiring if anyone is interested, please reach out to me to learn more! In my personal life, my husband and I welcomed our second son, Conor Myers. He is super special and loved. I cannot wait to see his personality unfold. His older brother Calvin is still keeping us busy chasing him. With Covid life has been different, expectations have shifted, but overall we are thriving.
As always, I miss everyone in the program. I am always happy to provide a lesson or two on somatic genetics if anyone is interested.
Attached is a pic from October 2020!
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| Julie Stella, Class of 2012
2020 has been a very busy year! My husband Mike and I are still enjoying living in North Raleigh. After six years of being a Medical Science Liaison, the pandemic brought a strong halt to weekly travel and all events shifted to virtual presentations and online meetings. This down time has been wonderful to spend time with family, get projects done around the house, and live at a slower pace. We added a quarantine puppy (meet Merle- Australian Shepard and Pocket’s “little” brother) and then three weeks late found out we were pregnant. Talk about a whirlwind! Baby girl Stella is due in late January, just two weeks after big brother Landon’s 2nd birthday. We are very busy with toddler life and excited for this next chapter!
I am pictured here with my family during a fall weekend in the NC mountains in the first photo and pumpkin picking locally in Raleigh in the second. The third photo is our new puppy "Merle" and our 8-year-old Pomeranian "Pocket"!
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| Melanie Hardy, Class of 2011
Melanie sent over several photos of her human and canine family, above, with the following message:
I'm still at JScreen and super busy with NSGC. Next year I'll be the incoming co-chair of the annual conference planning committee for the NSGC AC (hoo boy...)!
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Courtney Rowe-Teeter, Class of 2005
I am now into my 8th year with Stanford Cancer Genetics Clinic and continue to love providing clinical care. We worked hard to launch a small percentage of video visits in early 2020, which quickly became 100% video visits alongside the rest of the world due to COVID. At least it made the transition easier!
A colleague and I started a FORCE support group last year, which has transitioned well into the virtual setting allowing access to even more people.
The Stanford grant we secured to upgrade to the online Family History Questionnaire of Progeny and to create pre-visit educational videos is coming to fruition. We are getting ready to launch both in the coming month. We look forward to tracking how this hopefully improves our efficiencies, allowing for more space during a consult for psychosocial connection and counseling.
I have also been part of a Stanford Process Improvement team this year working to decrease time from referral to completed appointment with much success. It has been helpful to learn a structured format to implement process improvement efforts, and I look forward to applying what I have learned to other areas of our practice.
In regards to personal life, Ben and I celebrated out 19th wedding anniversary this past summer. Ben’s fine art business has been hit harder with COVID making art and wine festivals unsafe to hold. He launched a new website to improve the online buying process. If you are interested in sports art or landscapes, both can be found here just in time for holiday shopping: btarts.com
Sophia turned 11 this summer and started middle school—albeit virtually thus far. Sophia’s passion continues to be theatre and she has participated in several productions with directors getting more and more creative in how to do that during a pandemic. We were very proud parents when she was accepted into an audition only theatre group for the 2020-2021 theatre season.
Hope all of the extended UNCG genetic counseling family is staying safe, healthy and happy!
Courtney is pictured above (first photo), and her daught Sophia and their dog Franky are featured in the second photo.
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Stephanie Laniewski, Class of 2004
The first photo is of my husband and I, Ahmed, in Egypt shortly after we were married; we will be celebrating our first anniversary later this month. He is a MFM and Medical Geneticist here at University of Rochester Medical Center.
The second and third photos are of my son, Aaron. He has certainly changed since I graduated from UNCG! He is now 16 years old, a junior in HS, and is in a welding program that he really enjoys.
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Amy (Durrett) Morrow, Class of 2020
Pictured here with her husband, Danny!
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Mercedes Zoetemen, Class of 2019
Hi everyone! Over the past year I have continued to work as a pediatric genetic counselor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. I have been keeping busy with general pediatric patients as well coordinating any newborn screens that come our way, which most definitely keeps me on my toes. Every day at work is always a new experience, however, I continue to be inspired by each and every family I work with. In the past year I have also ventured into clinical supervision of genetic counseling students from the University of Maryland, and look forward to working with more students in the future! On a personal note, I have added a new addition to my family, a dog named Penny (pictured above)! While 2020 has had its challenges, Penny and I look forward to many more happy days ahead.
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| Emily Anderson, Lauren Loffredo, and Kim Skellington, Class of 2018
Still sporting the UNCG spirit wear at the UNCG Genetic Counseling Program's Orlando satellite location. Way to go, girls! : )
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Lilian Howard, Class of 2017
My big update this year is that I got engaged! My fiancé’s name is Greg Power and he is currently applying to pediatric residency programs. I continue to work at the University of Iowa in Pediatric Neurology as well as the Huntington Disease Center of Excellence. Between working and wedding planning, I have also managed to complete my first semester of coursework towards my masters degree in higher education. Don’t worry, I plan to stay in genetic counseling, but hopefully I can move into a more education focused role!
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Bri (Lubben) Benjamin, Class of 2015
I am still at Swedish Maternal Fetal Medicine doing prenatal genetic counseling. I have a part time administrative role for our group, which has allowed me the flexibility to accomplish some fun side projects. I recently was able to establish a neuro genetic counseling clinic at our hospital with plans to do cardiology in 2021, and am working with colleagues in the Seattle area to plan for the opening of a genetic counseling graduate program at the University of Washington next year.
Personally, this year was magical for me as I became a mom! Teddy was born in March, and loves animal noises, going outside, and dance music. He never stops moving and never stops smiling. Zach and I have been so lucky to use quarantine to spend so much extra time with him, and love every minute! We miss all our UNCG family and hope to see you all soon!
Attached is proof of the adorable monther baby from March and October.
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Courtney Kiss, Class of 2012
I continue to work as a clinical genetic counselor in prenatal and general genetics at Kingston Health Sciences Centre. I am volunteering with the Canadian Association of Genetic Counsellors on the Membership Committee and on the Certification Board Committee. Despite COVID-19, I was able to venture into the wilderness for many hikes and back-country canoe camping trips including an especially memorable 5-nighter in Algonquin Park. My favorite adventure buddy (Logan) is 2 years old.
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Nikki Fleming, Class of 2012
I’m currently working almost full-time as a GC independent contractor for two companies doing all variety of things in the field. I’m still a medical editor and writer, variant curator, and also call out genetic results to people all over the US. I’m also a team lead for more than 10 genetic counselors (also contractors) and help support them in their work. I never expected to find as much work in contract work as there has been, especially since the beginning of COVID. I continue to love what I do and who I work with (though, sometimes, I miss the slower days ;)).
As far as personal updates, I bought a house in Colorado with my partner and his kids. We live at the foothills of some amazing mountains, and every day I am thankful for the beauty around us - and having each other during this crazy time.
Much love to everyone!
The first photo is myself with my partner, Andy, and his two kids in the Tetons.
The second photo is me near Crestone Needle, one of the 14ers (peaks >14,000’) in Colorado. I’ve been enjoying pushing myself to my limits climbing up as many as I can.
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Megan Farmer, Class of 2012
2020 The first photo is of my husband Brantley and I from our wedding on December 14th, 2019!
The second photo is from our reception with Santa, Ms. Clause, and some of his favorite GCs before rushing off to clinic.
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The Class of 2011
Melanie Hardy provided the above photos with the following message:
The Class of 2011 grew closer (virtually) through the pandemic and we are now meeting monthly (anyone who can). We also had a 5 year reunion a while ago (in person) and need to do another one, once in-person is allowed again.
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Kate Foreman, Class of 2009
Our big news is that we welcomed Eleanor Dalton "Edie" to our family in September. Big sister Bernadette is thrilled. (Photos above)
Professionally, I joined the ABGC Certification Exam Committee this year after two years as an item writer. I also co-authored a book chapter entitled "Selecting secondary findings to report: Creating a list that suits your study." It appears in Secondary Findings in Genomic Research which was published in the Spring https://www.elsevier.com/books/secondary-findings-in-genomic-research/langanke/978-0-12-816549-2).
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| Amanda Noyes, Class of 2007
I went from my UNCG graduation to working as a clinical genetic counselor in a general genetics clinic at the University of TN in Knoxville. I began there as a solo GC who saw mainly oncology referral patients and an occasional adult (family history or pre-symptomatic HD testing) to helping transition the program so that myself and the 2nd GC we brought on board still saw those patients, but also worked closely with the geneticist for our pediatric and adult patients. We were also eventually trained in interpreting and writing microarray reports (I almost can't believe it when I think back and realize microarrays weren't even commonplace in clinic when I was in graduate school). After about 8 years at UT, I transitioned to working as a lab GC for GeneDx. I joined their clinical genomics team and have enjoyed writing all reports exome, clinical abstracting, and creating SOPs for our updated reports workflow. Outside of these two positions, I've also contributed to a genetics chapter for a medical textbook that is about to be published.
In my spare time, you can usually find me photographing my kids and their teammates at their soccer games...
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Ashley Volz, Class of 2003
Here is a photo taken on our front porch this year. It was called the Front Porch project in New Orleans. A local photographer started raising money for local charities by taking photos from a distance on your home’s front porch. Once she took the photo (from the road) she would send a link and you would pick the charity in which you wanted to donate. Stella is 11 years and Wendell is 4 years.
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Megan Harlan Fleischutt, Class of 2003
Megan Harlan Fleischut has continued her career at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC for over 14 years. Megan is grateful to work with a team of 20 genetic counselors as their manager and to contribute to the clinical and research efforts of their group. When she is not devoting her time to MSKCC and her colleagues, Megan enjoys swimming, skiing and celebrating everyday joys with her husband and children Duke (5) and Madison (2).
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