| International Society |
meet our membersClick here for more information on these highlighted members.
Congratulations to Katherine Maki for her recent ISONG Research Grant Award and for being selected for the 2017 National Institute of Nursing Research's Summer Genetic Institute, from which she received a scholarship to attend the 2018 Summer Institutes in Statistical Genetics.
Karlene created educational videos that highlight the stories of two patients. Click below to watch their incredible journeys unfold.
 Nicole Osier, PhD, RN "How to Move into an Omics Lab" - watch the process unfold as Dr. Osier and her team of busy bees set-up her omics lab at UT Austin!
Congratulations to ISONG Member Dr. Laurie Connors from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing who along with a colleague prepared a guest editorial on "Genetics and Genomics Content in Nursing Education: A National Imperative." Though genetic competencies have been embedded in AACN's Essentials documents, many nursing programs lack foundational content in the curricula. The authors call for academic nursing leaders to strengthen student preparation in the genetic and molecular basis of disease to better meet population health needs.
Dr. Laing is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Nursing at the University of Auckland in New Zealand (NZ) and is an emerging expert in nutrigenomics and health promotion. Dr. Laing recently completed her PhD thesis entitled ‘Key genotypes and the response to nutrient supplementation in Chron’s disease' and is the project manager for two collaborative research projects at the University of Auckland.
My story begins in 1986. My mother was 31 years old. She was married with two small girls, 8 and 4 years old. She found a lump in her breast….but 31 year olds don’t get cancer. It must be benign. She was told to watch it for a few months to see if it “goes away.” Two months later she returned to her doctor and pressed for further evaluation. A mammogram lead her to biopsy where she was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 31. She was treated with a radical left breast mastectomy and removal of 19 lymph nodes. All nodes were negative. She came home to her young family with a scar and staples where her left breast had been. Read more 
ISONG Member, Dr. Cheedy Jaja, an associate professor of nursing at the University of Cincinnati, is a man on a mission to create better awareness of the disease in Sierra Leone. There is growing recognition that sickle cell disease (SCD) represents an increasing global health burden. While remarkable progress has been made toward a better understanding and improved survival of patients with SCD in the United States, the fate of sickle cell disease babies in Sierra Leone is largely determined even before they are born. Up to 90 percent of the babies will die before their 5th birthday because of anemia, malaria and bacterial infections.
Dr. Nishigaki is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at Kyoto University in Japan and is a registered nurse and certified genetic counselor. Dr. Nishigaki is interested in behavioral change and genetic risk information of common disease, as well as genomic health literacy. Dr. Nishigaki has been a primary investigator and co-investigator on several grants examining genetic information in clinical practice.
Congratulations to Dr. Sheila Alexander for receiving the Nightingale Award of Pennsylvania for Nursing Research. This is an award for exceptional nursing research and the broad reaching impact of her research and mentoring work. Click here for the complete program information.
Dr. Dwyer is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Lausanne, Institute of Higher Education & Research in Healthcare and the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV). Dr. Dwyer supervises masters and doctoral students and teaches courses in advanced clinical assessment, family systems, and is a guest lecturer in genetic disorders of sexual development.
I graduated from GWU in 2010 from the Family Nurse Practitioner program. This is my third career change, or should I say transition. I was a genetic counselor for a few years before going to nursing school. After completing my BSN, I worked in hospital settings for medical/surgical, psychiatrics, and pulmonary for a few years. As soon as an opportunity availed itself, I finally came back to maternal child health. The bulk of my nursing career (15 years) was in-patient obstetrics. My long term vision had been to combine the advanced practice nursing career with the genetics component and be a nurse educator in a university hospital setting.
Ms. Estrada is the Clinical Program Coordinator at the Saul and Joyce Brandman Breast Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She is nationally certified as a: Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner; Certified Breast Care Nurse; and Certified Clinical Research Professional. Her current clinical care and research interests involve the screening of women who are at high risk for breast cancer and providing genetic counseling for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.
Cheryl is a primary care provider with DaVita Medical Group, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. DaVita Medical Group is the largest independent group of medical providers in the United States. Dr. Brubaker works to incorporate genomics in to daily primary care practice. Dr. Brubaker also teaches part time with the University of New Mexico in the FNP and DNP programs.
Karlene is a Nurse/Certified Genetic Counselor at the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University. After completing her undergraduate programs at the School of Nursing, Medical College of Georgia, she went on to graduate school at Emory University. Karlene became interested in the field of "Genetics Nursing" during her time at Emory when she took a genetics course while completing her Master of Nursing in 1975.
Theresa is an associate research scientist at Columbia University School of Nursing. Her program of research is dedicated to mitigating symptom burden in patients diagnosed with chronic conditions using omics-based approaches and informatics/data science techniques. The focus of Theresa’s genomics-intensive doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, where she earned a PhD in Nursing with a Health Care Genetics Minor, was on gaining a greater understanding of the biological foundations of cognitive dysfunction in women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
At the International Society of Nurses in Genetics we have a membership that varies widely in their path to genetics and their experiences. One of these we'd like you to meet is Jeanine Seguin Santelli, PhD, APRN, AGPCNP-BC, FAAN. Currently Professor and Chair of Nursing at Nazareth College, Jeanine is fulfilling her two childhood dreams, to be a nurse and a teacher. She decided to enter the field of "Genetics Nursing" after attending the 1998 Summer Genetics Institute...
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ISONG/ASHG Collaboration at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association Annual Conference. ISONG members Beth Pestka, Virginia Conley, Nicole Osier, and an ASHG representative prepared the presentation, which was presented by Beth Peska and Virginia Conley.
Sandra Daack-Hirsch, PhD, RN
Becky Kronk, PhD, MSN, CRNP
Jennifer Sanner Beauchamp, PhD, RN
Cheryl R. Brubaker, DNP, MSN, FNP-BC, RN 
