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Nicholas Little: “You know, the genetics journey for our patients here doesn’t end with diagnosis. That’s where it starts.”

Lexi Giordullo: “Genetics is changing so quickly, and being at the forefront of all of those exciting changes is just exhilarating.”

Lisa Berry: “I think, sort of, the sky’s the limit because genetic counselors have managed to make their way into all sorts of different roles that 30 years ago people never really thought about.”

Julianne Heartmann: “It’s not just geneticists. It’s everyone in every specialty has a hand in genetic testing, just about. And we are there to help when something doesn’t make sense.”

Lexi: “And we really want to help people to understand what the genetic contribution is to whatever kind of risk or disease they might have.”

Leandra Tolusso: “Yeah, the genetics part is a big part of our role, but I would say that the counseling is also a very large majority of our time. It’s one thing to understand what the anomaly is, but it’s a whole other thing to understand what does that mean for my family. I’m a really visual person, so I like to bring patients pictures and sometimes it’s the first time they’re seeing a picture of what we’re talking about.”

Lisa Berry: “There are tons and tons of different roles that genetic counselors play. So part of what we do in my particular area is that we help them organize, and we help them schedule multiple appointments. We try to coordinate their care for them.”

Emily Wakefield: “My job is actually 50 percent is in the lab and 50 percent is in the clinic. In the lab I’m educating the providers that are ordering the genetic testing to make sure that the best genetic test is being ordered for them.”

Lexi: “So kind of from that perspective, we really are all partners in healthcare.”

Emily: “I’ve had people fly in from California to see us in clinic, just because either they’ve been here before or they heard it was the best.”

Nick: “We see such a wide range of different genetic conditions and those patients follow up here throughout the majority of their life. So it’s really special to connect with those families and to really form a relationship.”

Lisa: “And the really neat thing about working with these families is that there are now therapies available to help some of them.”

Emily: “With some of the potential gene therapies and treatment. So I think it’s going to be really exciting to see how that unfolds.”

Lexi: “I think people find it quite empowering that there are things that they can do to be proactive about their cancer risk and to manage that risk. We’re already seeing the cost of genetic testing dropping dramatically. More people are able to get genetic testing now than ever were before.”

Lisa: “You don’t like to give them bad news or tell them that they have this particular disease, but when there’s a therapy available, I think that that’s really impactful for the family.”

Julianne Heartmann: “I mean just having a rapport with families, knowing that you have done something to really help them or their understanding of what’s going on, those are the things I take home with me and make me happy at the end of the day.

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