Devon Bonner, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic counselor, Medical Genetics & Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases

Devon graduated from the joint John’s Hopkins and National Human Genome Research Institutegenetic counseling program in 2017. Devon has worked in the Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases, clinical site of the Undiagnosed Disease Network, since 2017. She has also worked in the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Medical Genetics Department since 2018. Devon is enthusiastic about improving diagnosis and care of patients with rare diseases through the application of genomic technologies and team science. Her research interests include studying the psychosocial and health impact of living with and caring for family members with undiagnosed disease as well as developing multi-omics tools to improve diagnosis and clinical care. Devon is involved in teaching and supervision in the context of variant interpretation and clinical medical genetics clinics.

Laurel Calderwood, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Laurel graduated from the MS Program in Genetic Counseling at Boston University and was certified by ABGC in 2012. Her first role was working in the Mitochondrial and Neurometabolic Programs at Boston Children’s Hospital where she first cultivated an interest in these rare disorders. She subsequently worked as a faculty member with the BU Genetic Counseling program for 18 months before starting at LPCH in 2016. Her primary roles at LPCH are within the biochemical genetics and neurometabolic clinics.

Laurel has a strong interest in teaching and education. Within the Stanford Genetic Counseling Program she co-teaches GENE 272: Introduction to Medical Genetics, as well as lectures in other courses on metabolic and/or mitochondrial disorders. She has served on several student thesis committees, regularly has students in clinic for either their medical genetics rotation or dedicated biochemical genetics rotation, and also currently serves on the advisory board. She, along with MaryAnn Campion, created and teaches the genetics module for first year physician assistant students at Stanford. Nationally, she serves on the Program Review Committee for the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling.

Brooke Dunleavy, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Brooke received her MS in Genetic Counseling from The Ohio State University in 2018 and was certified by ABGC in 2018. She was a LEND fellow at The Ohio State where she completed coursework, research, and clinical rotations in autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. Her thesis work focused on patient comprehension of uninformative (negative or VUS) laboratory genetic testing result reports. Brooke started working at LPCH in June 2018 and participates in the Medical Genetics clinic as well as the differences of sexual development (DSD) multidisciplinary clinic.

Natalie Dykzeul, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Senior Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Natalie earned her MS in Genetic Counseling from the Virginia Commonwealth University training program in 2018. While in graduate school, she interned with Blue Shield of California and was a trainee in the Virginia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (Va-LEND) program. Her thesis was an exploratory study of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome focusing on the psychiatrist’s knowledge of the mental health implications and willingness to act in providing clinical services. Natalie began working at LPCH in July of 2018 and is currently working in both the Medical Genetics and the Biochemical Genetics clinics. She is also the dedicated genetic counselor in the multidisciplinary Cleft & Craniofacial and Craniosynostosis clinics.

Ellyn Farrelly, MS, MA, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor Supervisor, Medical Genetics

Ellyn graduated from Stanford’s genetic counseling program in 2010 and was certified by ABGC in 2011.  She has been the genetic counseling supervisor in Medical Genetics since 2018.  Ellyn has provided genetics care across the lifespan, including prenatal, pediatric, and adult genetics.  She has a strong clinical interest in RASopathies and helps coordinate the RASopathy/Neurofibromatosis clinic in Medical Genetics. She is also on the board of the Costello Family Syndrome Network.
 
Ellyn’s teaching and counseling interests focus on providing an environment where pediatric patients are engaged in their own care and receive developmentally-appropriate education.  She also has an interest in healthcare equity, which was reinforced by her four years working at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a ‘safety net’ hospital with a mandate to serve all populations regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.  Ellyn is a lecturer, talk-mentor and clinical supervisor in the genetic counseling program.  

Wesley Ho, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Wesley received his MS in genetic Counseling from Stanford University in June 2022. His thesis project evaluated the impact of the revised diagnostic criteria for Neurofibromatosis Type 1 on time to diagnosis and was published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. Wesley began working at LPCH in July 2022. He participates in the Medical Genetics clinic and coordinates the Down Syndrome clinic.

Jenny Kim, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Jenny received her MS in Genetic Counseling from Northwestern University in March 2020. Her thesis project was focused on determining the impact of phenotypic data on variant interpretation for pediatric patients with epilepsy. Jenny began working at LCPH in June 2020.

Susan Schelley, MPH, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Susan graduated from UCLA in 1983 and was certified by the ABMG in 1984. She has been at Stanford/LPCH since 1983 in General and Metabolic Genetics. Over her 30 years at Stanford, Susan has been very involved in teaching genetics at Stanford, including lecturing for various medical student courses and supervising genetics residents, post-docs and genetic counseling students. As an 'active retiree' starting in the Fall 2013, she will remain involved in lecturing and clinical supervision in general and metabolic genetic counseling areas.

Nina Sheridan, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Nina Sheridan (she/her) received her master's degree in human genetics and genetic counseling from Emory University in 2022. She started her career at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where she worked as a pediatric, inpatient, and laboratory genetic counselor. She has specific clinical experience in NF1, Down syndrome, bleeding disorders, intersex conditions, and NICU-based genetic counseling. Other interests include advocating for sex and gender minorities and queer inclusivity, especially within genetic counseling education.

Emma Smith, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Medical Genetics

Emma Smith, MS, LCGC is a genetic counselor in Medical Genetics and the Clinical Genomics Program, and a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics.  She earned her master’s degree in genetic counseling from University of British Columbia in 2017, and joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in 2017. Emma provides genetic counseling in the Medical Genetics clinic, including serving patients in the general genetics clinic as well as subspecialty clinics, such as RASopathies and vascular anomalies clinics. Within the CGP, Emma provides genetic counseling to patients undergoing exome sequencing and, as a laboratory genetic counselor, performs variant interpretation and writes exome reports. Emma enjoys teaching and mentoring genetic counseling students and residents and provides clinical supervision of genetic counseling students.

Starting in 2020, Emma began serving as a workgroup member with NSGCares, which supports genetic counselors and fosters connections with other organizations. Starting in the winter of 2020, Emma serves on the LPCH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Community Committee, which strives to foster and grow community partnerships and reduce child and maternal health inequities.

Connor Benson, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Connor received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon, and completed his graduate training in genetic counseling at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2022. He joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2022 and sees patients in the Perinatal Diagnostic Centers at El Camino and Stanford.

Stephanie Burke, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Kristi Guinon, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Kristi graduated from the UC Berkeley Genetic Counseling Program in 1990 and was certified by the ABGC in 1993. Prior to coming to Stanford in 1992, she worked at the UCSF Prenatal Diagnostic Center as a prenatal genetic counselor. Kristi has been a prenatal genetic counselor at LPCH and our Sequoia site since 1992. She is involved in the clinical supervision of genetic counseling students as part of the prenatal genetics rotation.

Marian Hart, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Whitney Heinrichs, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Whitney graduated from the Genetic Counseling Program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2005, and was certified by the ABGC in 2007. Whitney first worked as a volunteer, administrative assistant, and as an intern at LPCH, and has been a prenatal genetic counselor at LPCH (and at our Santa Cruz site) since 2005. She is involved in clinical supervision for the prenatal genetics rotation.

Meg Homeyer, MS, CGC

Genetic Counseling Supervisor, Prenatal Genetics

Patient Care Coordinator, Fetal and Pregnancy Health Program

Meg graduated from the UC Berkeley Genetic Counseling Program in 1999 and was certified by the ABGC the same year. Meg has been at Stanford since 1999, working as a prenatal genetic counselor. In 2009, she became the Patient Care Coordinator for the Center for the Fetal and Pregnancy Health Program at LPCH. She is fluent in Spanish and has lectured on prenatal diagnosis/psychosocial issues in the Latino population. Meg is a clinical supervisor for the prenatal genetics and advanced prenatal (Fetal Center) rotations.

Anna Iversen, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Anna graduated from the Genetic Counseling Program at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in 2021 and was certified by the ABGC in 2022. Prior to attending graduate school, Anna worked as a Newborn Hearing Screener at Massachusetts General Hospital and as a Clinical Research Assistant in Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. While in graduate school, Anna was the 2020-2021 Genetic Counseling LEND Fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Anna joined the Stanford prenatal genetic counseling team in 2021 and sees patients at LPCH. She is also a co-instructor for the Stanford Prenatal Genetic Counseling course and works with genetic counseling students in the prenatal clinical rotations.

Rachel Mangels, PhD, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Originally from Santa Monica, Rachel graduated with her MS in Genetic Counseling from the Stanford program and was board certified in 2019. Before earning her master’s Rachel completed a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California. She joined the Stanford prenatal genetic counseling team in 2019 and sees patients primarily at LPCH.

Ronit Mazzoni, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Ronit is a genetic counselor in the Fertility and Reproductive Health department. She received her undergraduate degree from Scripps College in 2005 and her master’s degree in genetic counseling from Northwestern University in 2007. She previously worked at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center as a genetic counselor seeing prenatal, pediatric and adult patients. Ronit joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2021 and works with patients utilizing preconception carrier screening and preimplantation genetic testing.

Melissa Mills, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Originally from Massachusetts, Melissa graduated from Stanford’s genetic counseling program in 2010 and was also certified by ABGC in 2010. She has worked as a relief genetic counselor at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in prenatal genetic counseling since soon after graduation in 2010. Melissa sees patients at almost all LPCH sites as needed. Melissa also previously worked part time as a cancer genetic counselor for Sutter Health.

Kathleen Murphy, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Kathleen is a genetic counselor in Perinatal Genetics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford with a degree in 2011  and her master’s degree in genetic counseling from Stanford University in 2021.  Kathleen joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2021 and sees patients in the Perinatal Diagnostic Center.

Sunny Norton, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Sunny Norton joined LPCH in 2013. Originally from the Central Valley, Sunny graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and received her Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from University of Colorado Denver in 2010. Prior to coming to the Perinatal Genetics group, she worked as a laboratory genetic counselor at Diagnostic Cytogenetics, Inc. in Seattle Washington, where she served as a client liaison, providing information and resources to medical providers for prenatal, pediatric, and hematologic cases. She sees patients at LPCH and Salinas offices, and participates in supervision of the genetic counseling students in the prenatal clinical rotations.

Carly Smith, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Originally from Ohio, Carly graduated from the University of Georgia and received her Master of Genetic Counseling from Vanderbilt University in 2021. While in graduate school she was a trainee at the Vanderbilt Consortium LEND program. Carly joined the perinatal genetic counseling team in 2021, where she is a genetic counselor and patient care coordinator for the Fetal and Pregnancy Health Program (Fetal Center).

Jenna Stoltzfus, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Jenna received her undergraduate degree from Boston University in 2013 and her master’s degree in genetic counseling from Stanford University in 2020. She joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2020 and sees patients in the Perinatal Diagnostic Centers at El Camino and Stanford.

Karina Talreja, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Originally from San Diego, Karina graduated with her master’s degree in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling from the Stanford program in 2017 and was certified by ABGC in 2017. After graduation, Karina worked as a prenatal genetic counselor with Integrated Genetics in San Jose, before joining the LPCH prenatal genetic counseling team in 2019. She sees patients in the Perinatal Diagnostic Center and through the Fetal and Pregnancy Health Program (Fetal Center).

Rachel Zimmer, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Prenatal Genetics

Rachel graduated from the Genetic Counseling Program at Sarah Lawrence College in 2003 and was certified by the ABGC in 2005. Rachel worked for 11 years as a prenatal genetic counselor for Genzyme Genetics and Integrated Genetics seeing patients at various clinics in the Central Valley and Bay Area. She is now a prenatal genetic counselor at Stanford working mainly at the Salinas clinic.

Nicki Chun, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Nicolette (Nicki) graduated from UC-Berkeley’s Genetic Counseling program in 1983, and was certified by the ABMG in 1984. Before she came to Stanford, she worked for 7 years at Harbor-UCLA in prenatal genetics. She has been at Stanford/LPCH for since 1991, initially in the Medical Genetics group, and most recently in the Cancer Genetics program and providing specialty genetic counseling and testing to the Neuroendocrine Genetics Clinic. She has been the Subcommittee Co-Chair for NSGC’s Cancer Genetics SIG and has served on the Research Subcommittee. Her research focus lies on inherited breast, colon, and gastric cancer projects involving risk reduction trials, subpopulation variations, developing new screening protocols, and improving cancer educational resources. Nicki has also helped with multiple educational talks to the lay community at grade and high schools and at adult education forums on general genetics, genetic counseling, and cancer genetics topics. Nicki is involved in teaching within the cancer genetics course and supervising students in their cancer genetics rotation.

Audrey Fan, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Audrey graduated from Sarah Lawrence College’s Graduate Program in Human Genetics in 2012. She began her genetic counseling career at Geisinger Health’s Genomic Medicine Institute. In addition to building its system-wide clinical cancer genetics service initially as its sole cancer genetic counselor, she also helped implement two multidisciplinary “Inherited Risk” clinics to serve newly- identified BRCA and Lynch syndrome patients. Her research work focused primarily on  parental attitudes and expectation towards receiving genomic test results in healthy children. In 2017, she was an early stage startup employee at Genome Medical, a nationwide genomics medical practice and digital health company. She worked with the clinical, product and engineering teams to develop clinician-friendly software features and to implement programs with external partners like labs and hospital systems. In 2022, Audrey joined the Oncology Genetics and Genomics Department at Stanford Health Care with a focus on developing novel clinical care models to provide patients with timely access to genetic counseling expertise and genetic testing.

Aisha Furquan, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Aisha is a Genetic Counselor in the Oncology Genetics and Genomics Department at Stanford Health Care. She previously worked as a Lab Genetic Counselor at Natera and has special interest in variant curation and cell-free DNA technology. She has over eight years of experience working in oncology clinical and lab setting. She is also passionate about medical ethics and taught a course on Ethics in Genetic Counseling at the UCSD extension program. She is a co-founder and co-director of the Pakistani Society of Medical Genetics and Genomics. She has a Masters in Genetic Counseling from the Stanislaus State University and is certified by the American Board of Genetic Counselors.

Rachel Hodan, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Rachel graduated from the CSU Genetic Counseling program and received her board certification in 2012. She started her Senior Genetic Counselor position at the Stanford Cancer Genetics Clinic in 2014. She specializes in risk assessment for patients with inherited gastrointestinal syndromes.  Rachel is co-director of the cancer genetics training course for the Stanford MS program in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling.  She was a member and then chair of the research committee of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancer (CGA-IGC) from 2019-2022. Rachel is Stanford’s representative to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines committee: Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Colorectal.  She has been a facilitator of the hereditary cancer support group at Bay Area Cancer Connections (BACC) in collaboration with Facing our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE) since 2015. In 2021, she began work as a collaborator on NIH-funded research studying novel approaches to increase cascade testing for inherited cancer pathogenic variants.

Kerry Kingham, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Kerry graduated from the UC Berkeley Genetic Counseling Program in 2001 and was certified by the ABGC in 2002. She is the lead genetic counselor in Cancer Genetics and Genomics at the Cancer Center of Stanford Healthcare. Kerry’s career began at Stanford in 2001. Since that time she has worked as a teratogen counselor with the California Teratogen Information Service (now Mother-to-Baby), in pre-natal genetics at LPCH and in cancer genetics at Stanford Healthcare. She served as the NSGC Cancer SIG's Education co-chair from 2010 - 2012. Kerry enjoys educating the community on testing for hereditary cancer syndromes. She lectures on cancer genetics and provides clinical supervision for the genetic counseling MS program. She is an active member of the admissions committee and has served as a student research adviser as well as a student mentor.

Karlena Lara-Otero, PhD, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center South Bay

Karlena graduated from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in 2004 with a BS in Biology and received her PhD in Biology in 2010 from the Universidad Simón Bolívar. Her field of study was breast cancer and she worked in a cancer genetics laboratory screening breast cancer patients for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. After completing her PhD, Karlena moved from her native Venezuela to Washington DC where she became a postdoctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Translational Surgical Pathology at the National Cancer Institute at NIH, conducting research on male breast and kidney cancer. Karlena entered the CSU Genetic Counseling program in 2014; graduating and receiving her license in 2016. She recently joined the Stanford Cancer Genetics Clinic within a team of seven counselors. Karlena primarily serves the South Bay community working at the Stanford Cancer Center South Bay. Karlena’s Spanish skills will be well utilized in the SF Bay area.

Molly McGuinness, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Bass Childhood Cancer Center

Molly graduated from the Boston University Genetic Counseling Program and became certified by the ABGC in 2020. Prior to attending graduate school, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Villanova University. After graduation, Molly spent two years working in cancer clinical research at Columbia University Medical Center. Molly joined Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in August 2020 where she sees pediatric oncology patients in the Bass Center.

Shilpa Narayan, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Shilpa is a genetic counselor in the Stanford Cancer Genetics Department. She is certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling. Shilpa joined Stanford in July 2022 after obtaining her master’s in genetic counseling from Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, CA. Prior to joining her genetic counseling program, Shilpa worked in customer experience at Exact Sciences and worked multiple years as a research assistant in both cancer and cardiovascular research. Shilpa received her undergraduate degree in biology from Santa Clara University and a M.S from Drexel University.

Misha Rashkin, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Misha Rashkin is a genetic counselor specializing in oncology. Prior to coming to Stanford in January of 2020, Misha held clinical and research roles at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania and Mount Sinai Health System in NYC. Misha also spent two years working in a role focused on genetics policy/privacy at a Bay Area start up. Misha lectures on privacy and genetic discrimination, was the Chair of the Public Policy Committee for NSGC in 2018, and earned NSGCs New Leader award in 2016. He holds an MS in genetic counseling from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Class of 2013.

Courtney Rowe-Teeter, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cancer Center

Courtney graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2005 and was certified by the ABMG & ABGC in 2007. Courtney established a Cancer Genetics Clinic at the Thompson Cancer Survival Center in Knoxville, TN in 2005. She successfully grew the clinic to necessitate the addition of a second counselor in 2008 through increasing the referral base across specialties and educating the surrounding community about cancer genetics. She previously provided supervision to two genetic counseling graduate students for their summer rotations in 2008 & 2012. Courtney joined the Stanford Cancer Genetics Clinic in July 2013, moving to the San Jose site in the summer of 2015 to establish this service line in the South Bay. She continues to enjoy supervising and mentoring genetic counseling graduate students.

Hannah Ison, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease

Hannah Ison, MS, LCGC, is a cardiovascular genetic counselor who specializes in congenital heart defects and familial hypercholesterolemia. She graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz in 2014 with a degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. She then attended Indiana University’s genetic counseling program and received her master’s degree in medical and molecular genetics. She joined the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease in 2018 and works as both an adult and pediatric genetic counselor.

Anusha Klinder, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease & Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases

Anusha Klinder is a genetic counselor at the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease working within the Center for Marfan Syndrome and Related Aortic Disorders. She received her undergraduate degree in Global Disease Biology from the University of California, Davis and graduated from the University of California, Irvine’s genetic counseling program in 2022. Anusha has prior experience in rare disease spaces and patient advocacy programs, especially with 4H Leukodystrophy, and is passionate about personalized medicine and variant interpretation within these communities.

Jennefer Kohler, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease & Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases

Jennefer Kohler is a genetic counselor at the Stanford Centers for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease and Undiagnosed Diseases as well as the Stanford Hypertension Center. Her clinical work involves helping individuals and families at risk for inherited disease to navigate, understand, and adapt to cardiac or renal health risks. In the research space, Jennefer works with the Center for Undiagnosed Diseases team in applying the newest genomic technologies and integrating diverse types of patient data in an effort to diagnose individuals with rare disease.

Jennefer received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and her masters in genetic counseling from Johns Hopkins University /National Human Genome Research Institute.

Tia Moscarello, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor (affiliated)

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease

Tia Moscarello is a genetic counselor with the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease (SCICD). Her clinical focus is working with critically ill individuals with suspected genetic heart conditions as SCICD’s inpatient genetic counselor. Tia co-founded the Inpatient SIG within the National Society of Genetic Counselors in 2020 and was its first Chair. Tia remains actively involved in the SIG and other committees in NSGC. Tia is co-course director of GENE287, supervises genetic counseling interns and serves as on interns’ research committees.

Mitchel Pariani, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease

Mitchel earned his Master’s degree in genetic counseling from California State University, Northridge in 2007. After graduate school he spent six plus years working at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, seeing patients in the late David Rimoin, MD, PhD’s connective tissue disorders clinic and later built the cardiovascular genetics program at CSMC. At CSMC he also established the CSMC Summer Genetic Counseling Rotation Program that hosted students from most of the programs in the United States. In 2014 he joined the new Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Mitchel is the primary instructor for Stanford’s new Cardiovascular Genetics course and serves as a clinical supervisor.

Julia Platt, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Cardiovascular Genetic Counseling Manager, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease

Julia earned her MS in Genetic Counseling from UC Irvine in 2007. Since then she has worked in several specialties, including a mitochondrial disorder diagnostics lab and the Biochemical Genetics clinic at Stanford Children’s. She now works at the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. She sees people with inherited cardiomyopathies in clinic and has led the Stanford Cardiovascular Genetic Counseling team since 2020.

Julia has a strong interest in translating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) principles into daily actions. In 2019 she served as a co-Chair for the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Diversity and Inclusion Task Force. Her current focus is on developing tools to support transparent expectations and evaluation of trainees and a guide for inclusive discussion of identity as part of clinical care. Her other counseling  interests include Motivational Interviewing.  Julia lectures in counseling courses, is involved in student research, and is a clinical supervisor for the cardiovascular genetics rotation.

Shami (Sharmila) Ravi, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Pediatric Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders Program

Shami Ravi is a genetic counselor with the Pediatric Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders program. She specializes in cardiovascular connective tissue disorders. She received her undergraduate degree in genetics from UC Davis in 1995 and her master’s degree in genetic counseling from UC Berkeley in 2001. She previously worked as a genetic counselor with the UCSF Cancer Risk Program and then the UCSF Prenatal Diagnosis Center. Shami joined Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford in 2022 and sees patients in the Cardiovascular Connective Tissue Disorders clinic and in the Betty Irene Moore Children’s Heart Center.

Chloe Reuter, MS, CGC

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease & Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases

Chloe Reuter is originally from Michigan and she received her undergraduate degree in biology from Cornell University. She received her M.S. in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling from Stanford in 2016. Chloe joined the Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease in July 2016. Her work focuses mainly on genetic variant interpretation for individuals with undiagnosed diseases and she is also connected to the adult cardiovascular genetics team. She is also involved in research related to genetic counselors’ practice of clinical variant interpretation.

Hannah Wand, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease & Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases

Hannah Wand is a cardiovascular genetic counselor specializing in Familial Hypercholesterolemia and inherited dyslipidemia. She is a project manager for the NIH-funded ClinGen consortium, with a focus on population screening implementation research. She co-chairs the Public Health Genetics SIG and Familial Hypercholesterolemia working group of NSGC.

Hannah received her masters in genetic counseling from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health /National Human Genome Research Institute and is a PhD candidate in Translational Health Sciences at George Washington University.

Lauren Mattas, MS, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Pediatric Neurogenomics Program

Lauren received her Master’s degree in Genetic Counseling from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2014, and was certified by the ABGC the same year. She began her career at the Mills Peninsula Dorothy Schneider Cancer Center in San Mateo providing cancer genetic counseling. She then practiced at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland supporting a broad array of patients in cancer, prenatal, and pediatric and adult general genetics. Lauren started at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in the Pediatric Neurogenomics Program in 2020. She has also enjoyed supervising graduate students and providing mentorship to future genetic counselors.

Carly Siskind, MS, CGC

Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences

Genetic Counselor, Neuromuscular Clinic

Carly Siskind is the first genetic counselor in the neuromuscular clinic at Stanford Hospital and Clinics. She received her MS in Genetic Counseling from Northwestern University in 2006, and has worked in neurology since 2007, previously at Wayne State and coming to Stanford in 2011. She currently sees adults and children with conditions covered by the Muscular Dystrophy Association, and has a particular interest in Charcot Marie Tooth disease. She is the genetic professional on the Advisory Board for the Charcot Marie Tooth Association. She also sees patients in the Huntington Disease Clinic. She is involved in supervision of the neurogenetics rotation, is a member of the admissions committee, helps facilitate GENE 275 (role play course) and is involved in student research projects.

Caitlin Hale, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Clinical Genomics Program

Caitlin Hale is a genetic counselor in the Clinical Genomics and Cytogenetics Laboratories. Her work involves variant interpretation and reporting writing for chromosomal microarray and genome-based testing, as well as new test development. She previously worked as a genetic counselor in Medical Genetics at LPCH where she provided genetic counseling to patients in a variety of general and subspecialty clinics. Caitlin has an interest in the implementation of whole genome sequencing and currently serves in the Patient Selection working group of the Medical Genomics Initiative (MGI). Within the genetic counseling program, Caitlin supervises students during their variant interpretation rotation.

Tiffany Nguyen Dolphyn, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Clinical Genomics Program

Tiffany graduated from Yale University in 2016 with a B.S. in biology and received her M.S. in Human Genetics and Genetic Counseling from Stanford University in 2020. After graduate school, Tiffany worked at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine as a research genetic counselor, helping patients and families affected by neurological, rare, and undiagnosed diseases. In 2022, she returned to Stanford in a remote role with the Clinical Genomics Program where she performs variant assessment and reporting for genome-based testing and contributes to new test development. Tiffany enjoys teaching about variant interpretation and mentoring student research projects.
 

Eric Johns, MMSc, CGC

Genetic Counselor, Genetic Testing Opmtimization Service

Antoine Rajkovic, MS

Genetic Counselor, Stanford Cytogenetics and Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) Laboratory

Linbo Yu, MS, CGC

Clinical Instructor (Affiliated), Department of Pediatrics 

Senior Genetic Counselor, Genetic Testing Opmtimization Service

Linbo is the senior genetic counselor of Genetic Testing Optimization Service (GTOS) at Stanford Clinical Lab. She received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics from UCLA. She graduated from the Genetic Counseling Program at UC Irvine in 2009 and was certified by the ABGC in 2010. Prior to joining Stanford, Linbo worked as a lab genetic counselor at Ambry Genetics for three years. She also worked in the Variant Curation team at Counsyl after moving to the Bay Area. In 2014, She became the first lab genetic counselor at Stanford Hospital and a founding member of the Genetic Testing Optimization Service. As a clinical liaison between Stanford Clinical Lab and the ordering providers, some of her roles involve assisting clinicans with selection of genetic tests and educating them about genetic diseases and test information. In addition, Linbo has enjoyed supervising students during their GTOS rotation. She has also served as a guest lecturer for GENE 272 and a mentor for student research project.

Thuy-mi (Mimi) Nguyen, MS

Research Genomics

Thuy-mi (Mimi) received her Master's degree in Genetic Counseling from the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus in 2015. She began her career at Mayo Clinic as a genetic counselor in the Cytogenetics Laboratory, and also practiced in Whole Exome Sequencing Clinic and Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. Mimi joined the Snyder Lab at Stanford University in 2021, where she analyzes whole genome sequencing data, facilitates informed consent and return of results to study participants, and supervises genetic counseling students in variant interpretation rotations.

Beth Pollard, MS, CGC

Research Genomics

Elizabeth (Beth) completed her Master’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago in 2015, and previously worked as a research technologist at a neuroscience-focused pharmaceutical startup. She also earned a Master's degree in Genetic Counseling at Northwestern University in 2020, where she received an award for best student research for her thesis work studying the impacts of restrictive abortion laws on prenatal genetic counselors. She moved to the Bay Area and practiced clinically as a prenatal genetic counselor before joining the Snyder lab at Stanford University in 2022. As a research genetic counselor, Beth analyzes whole genome sequencing data, consents and returns results to research participants, and supervises genetic counseling student rotations in variant interpretation.