Click the buttons at the bottom of each class section to check out the updated bios on our program website!

Whitney Dobek

I've attached a photo of my family as well as a few gems from our first year at UNCG.I feel like there are too many great memories from that time to even begin to pick out specific ones to talk about.But, I think it sums it up best to say that UNCG wasnot only where I got my genetic counseling education, but it was also where I made some of the most meaningful connections of my life.I really could not think more fondly of my time there.Can't wait to see the newsletter and ongoing 20th anniversary fun!

Following graduation in 2010, Kelly moved back to her hometown of Huntsville, Alabama and began working at HudsonAlpha, a non-profit genomic research institute. Today, she is still at HudsonAlpha and leads a team of genetic counselors involved in clinical care, research, and education programs.

Kelly also serves as the Director for the Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine.Kelly is on the advisory board for several GC programs and an adjunct faculty member of a local nursing program and medical school. Her on-going research interests center largely around the use of genomic testing for rare disease diagnosis as well as population screening.

Kelly and her husband have a son, Perry, and a daughter, Clara. As a family, they love to travel anywhere and everywhere.

Melanie was promoted to Director of Genetic Counseling for JScreen at Emory University this year. She remains active in NSGC and ABGC, and will be the 2022 AnnualConference Program Chair for the Nashville, TN Annual Conference.

Following graduation in 2013, Erin began her career as a reproductive genetic counselor at UNC-Chapel Hill. Over the next five years, she worked closely with a team of genetic counselors and had a special interest in perinatal palliative care. One of her favorite roles at UNC was serving as a rotation site supervisor for UNCG and University of South Carolina genetic counseling students. In 2018, her husband graduated with his Master of Divinity and they relocated to Knoxville, TN. With a new city came a new specialty, and Erin transitioned to oncology. She re-established the Oncology Genetic Counseling clinic at the University of Tennessee Medical Center Cancer Institute and works closely with several nurse practitioners who have specialized in oncology genetics. It is a goal to have a champion for genetics in each oncology clinic/service line as the importance of genetic testing in oncology continues to evolve. Erin recently celebrated three years with UTMC and has enjoyed becoming a part of the greater Knoxville community. 

Erin noticed an opportunity to provide further support for clients at risk for hereditary cancer and helped to establish a local chapter of FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered) in 2019. Professionally, Erin has enjoyed using and growing her counseling skills in this unique way. The inaugural support group meeting was held in late September 2020 via Zoom and Erin looks forward to meeting in person soon. 

Within two weeks this past June Erin had two big personal milestones: Erin and her husband, Chase, welcomed their son, Isaac, and moved into their new home in Knoxville. It certainly made for an exciting summer! Erin recommends spacing out these milestones if you’re able to do so. Personally, Erin is also heavily invested in her husband's ministry as a college and young adult pastor. Together, they also love to spend time outside with their fur-baby, Knox, try out new recipes, and look forward to growing into parenthood.  

Heather Rocha

Heather is a 2014 graduate of the program, andhas been with Geisinger for over 7 years. She continues to lead the Cancer Genetics program and Geisinger’s multi-disciplinary Lynch Syndrome Management Program serving over 150 patients in our community with the condition. In 2020, Heather was nominated for the Heart of Genetic Counseling award; in 2019, she received a Top Patient Experience award for outstanding patient satisfaction scores. She continues to split time between research and clinical care, focusing on hereditary GI cancer syndromes. Heatheris expecting her second child in 2022 and continues to enjoy her busy life with a toddler, husband, and dog (who adopted in NC during her first week of classes) in Lewisburg, PA.

Caitlin (Troyer) Barnes

Since graduation in 2015, I’ve worked as a pediatric and adult genetic counselor at the University of Virginia (UVA). I’ve additionally been a part of UVA’s multi-disciplinary hemophilia treatment center (HTC) and have enjoyed being a clinical supervisor for students from VCU’s genetic counseling program. More recently I’ve become involved in genetic consultations for patients in the inpatient setting (NICU, PICU, etc.) and have helped our group establish a new genetic counseling only clinic at UVA!Since 2020, I’ve also served as Education Coordinator for our division. In this role I organize the educational experiences for various trainees (genetic counseling students, medical students, residents, etc.) and I coordinate student shadowing opportunities.I’ve been married to my husband, Tom, since 2019 and together we have a cat, Charlie. We love living in Charlottesville and enjoy hiking in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains and spending time outdoors. In the past two years I’ve renewed my interest in gardening! In September, Tom and I were fortunate to be able to take a trip to Austria, which was truly incredible!

Best,

Caitlin (Troyer) Barnes

We welcomed our first child this year, Cyrus Dean Brovold, born February 2021. As all Office fans would appreciate, here is Cy dressed up as Dwight Shrute for his first Halloween.

Rebecca recently joined the UCLA genetic counseling training program as a faculty member and their Assistant Program Director. She also recently joined the Southern California Genetic Counselors’ Board as their Education Chair.

Personal update: I got married to Adam Frazier this summer! We also adopted a sweet puppy this year. She is an Australian shepherd mix named Fern.

Professional update: I’m now the Team Lead for Duke Clinical Cancer Genetics.

Rachel and I are engaged and will be getting married in April 2022! Here is a photo from our engagement shoot featuring Gus.