Sharon Terry, President & CEO, Genetic Alliance
Julia Ortega, Genetic Alliance Council
Ryan Taft, Genetic Alliance Council
Genetic Alliance Welcomes Two New Council Members
— Robin L. Bennett, Director, UW Genetic Counseling Graduate Program
DAMASCUS, MD, USA, November 10, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) honored Sharon Terry with the Advocacy Award at the ASHG 2022 Annual Meeting. This prestigious award honors people or teams who’ve exhibited excellence and achievement in purposes of human genetics for the widespread good.
In nominating Sharon, Robin L. Bennett, MS, CGC; Director, University of Washington Genetic Counseling Graduate Program; mentioned, “Sharon Terry is the epitome of advocacy for human genetics and genomics on an international stage. She has led Genetic Alliance to advance global genetic research agendas toward health benefits for all by engaging a broad range of stakeholders, including healthcare providers, researchers, industry professionals, public policy leaders as well as individuals, families, and communities. Her expertise and guidance has been sought by many prestigious policy organizations, e.g., The Institute of Medicine. She is a tireless advocate for biorepositories, registries, translational research, patient rights to their genomic information, orphan drugs, and open access to genetic research information. If I picked one word to describe Sharon, it would be luminary. She is an inspiration to anyone she touches, and her reach has been into almost every new area of genetics and genomics research, policy and health.”
The Advocacy Award was granted to Sharon in 2021 however formally acknowledged in 2022 at the first in-person American Society of Human Genetics assembly since the pandemic’s begin. ASHG President, Charles Rotimi congratulated Sharon throughout the ceremony. Sharon additionally participated in the annual assembly with a poster on Genetic Alliance’s new program, iHope Genetic Health (iGH). iGH seeks to diagnose undiagnosed people in low to center revenue international locations and communities, utilizing beneficiant in-kind donations from Illumina, ASW, and Luna.
New Council Members
Genetic Alliance can also be delighted to announce two new board members, each of whom have experience key to iHope Genetic Health.
Julia Ortega brings over thirty years of expertise in the biotech, diagnostics and healthcare business. She describes herself as a affected person advocate expert in Operational Leadership, Clinical Translational Research, and Patient Care. Her curiosity is in growing large-scale efficient multi-systems in healthcare to enhance the each day lives of individuals. Julia was honored to obtain a Bureau of Primary Care scholarship that enabled her to earn Physician Assistant and Masters in Health Science levels from Duke University School of Medicine. She then practiced in inside medication and geriatrics at a federally certified well being heart and in expert nursing services for over 15 years. Her baccalaureate diploma is from the phenomenal Spelman College, whose mission is to empower the complete individual to have interaction the many cultures of the world and encourage a dedication to optimistic social change.
Prior to her present place at C2N Diagnostics, Julia initiated the iHope Genetic Health philanthropic program at Genetic Alliance, the place she targeted on the world growth of genetic testing to undiagnosed communities. Julia was a Director of Scientific Research at Illumina, Inc, the place she ran the each day operational actions of the Illumina iHope Program in addition to a portfolio of a number of medical analysis genomic tasks that utilized complete genome sequencing and multi-omic applied sciences. Her background additionally contains working for United Health Group, Aetna, and Blue Shield of California, the place she developed Clinical Programs for populations in want primarily based on medical and prescription mixture claims information. Julia at the moment sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Augustana-Sanford Genetic Counseling Graduate Program and runs a STEM Mentoring Program for highschool college students in under-resourced communities.
Julia brings a mix of people-centric expertise and expertise which might be essential to Genetic Alliance’s growth with the iHope Genetic Health Program. You can hear Julia talk about this with Natasha Bonhomme, our Chief Strategy Officer.
Ryan J. Taft, PhD, is Vice President, Scientific Research at Illumina Inc, the place he leads a portfolio targeted on deploying genomic applied sciences for sufferers worldwide, particularly the use of complete genome sequencing as a platform for genetic testing. At Illumina, his actions embody oversight of the Illumina Clinical Services Laboratory’s medical complete genome sequencing take a look at, pediatric and grownup medical trials, bioinformatic innovation, and novel utility improvement.
Dr. Taft has helped describe greater than a dozen novel genetic issues, printed greater than 100 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, and is credited with being one of the first to make use of short-read complete genome sequencing of a household to resolve an undiagnosed illness. He is an advisor to half a dozen uncommon genetic illness targeted expertise firms and non-profits. His work has been featured in WIRED, Forbes, Science, Scientific American, Nature Biotechnology, the tv collection Chasing The Cure, and the documentary collection Australian Story.
Previously Ryan was a Group Leader at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, specializing in the discovery and performance of novel regulatory RNAs and the function of non-coding DNA in animal evolution. He obtained his PhD in Genomics and Computational Biology, which acquired a Deans’ Commendation for Academic Excellence, from the University of Queensland on a US National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Davis on a Regent’s Scholarship. Among different awards, Ryan acquired the Biocom Life Science Catalyst Award for innovation in the life sciences and the 2021 International Alumnus of the Year award from the University of Queensland.
Ryan leads the Illumina iHope program offering free medical complete genome sequencing for over 1000 undiagnosed people in the previous 7+ years. He brings this ardour for supporting genetic illness sufferers to Genetic Alliance as we dive into the iHope Genetic Health program.
About Genetic Alliance
Genetic Alliance is a 501 (c) (3) that engages people, households, and communities to remodel well being. For greater than three many years, we’ve empowered advocacy organizations and different communities to collaborate with coverage, service, analysis establishments at the worldwide, nationwide, state, and native ranges.
Genetic Alliance has offered registry and biobanking providers since 2003 to any nonprofit or illness group. We additionally assist research with our associate Luna (lunadna.com). Our iHope Genetic Health program offers free medical complete genome sequencing to anybody in want of a prognosis.
Sharon Terry
Genetic Alliance
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Julia Ortega, Genetic Alliance Council, speaks with Natasha Bonhomme, Genetic Alliance Chief Strategy Officer and Founder, Expecting Health
