Every other month an active member of our CCGCoP Community will be highlighted and pose a question to our forum for all members to reply with their insights. If you have a member you would like to recommend, please email your submission to community@ccgcop.org. Visit the discussion post and answer Beth's question here.
Current position: My current position is attending Radiation Oncologist at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, Boston, MA. Additionally I serve as Director of Cancer Genetics Counseling for the St. Elizabeth's Medical Center.Current employer: My current employer is UMASS/Memorial Health Care in Worcester, Massachusetts. UMASS contracts its services to the St. Elizabeth/Steward system.
My Career Journey Highlights have been:
- Developing expertise and Leadership skills in breast cancer program development
- Participating in and graduating from 2012 COH Intensive Course in Cancer Genetics
- Being part of the City of Hope family and greater Community of Practice with colleagues from all over the world!
- One piece of advice that I would give clinicians who want to start or grow a GCRA practice is to align yourself with a mentor/champion(preferably with visibility and stature within the system) who understands the value added nature of this practice and can help to lobby support including administrative support
Fun fact about myself:
I was a collegiate gymnast for 4 years despite being twice the size of Simone Biles. I also fairly recently rode a unicycle in my town's 4th of July parade mortifying my daughter as I rode through town!
What I find most valuable about the CCGCoP:
The incredible sense of community and inclusivity of the group. We are working with brilliant, world renowned scientists, clinicians and geneticists who make us all feel valued, respected and supported as we all work towards a common goal of providing access and excellence in genetics counseling to those who need it most!
Question I would ask my colleagues:
The question that I would ask colleagues is when do you envision the technology to be developed enough to intervene in those with germline mutations on the cellular level to correct or offset the mutations to eliminate the risk of cancer development?