Astrid Ertola

Astrid Ertola, M.A., received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Master of Arts in Psychology from the City University of New York, Queens College. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology at Fielding Graduate University (APA Accredited) and is completing her pre-doctoral internship with the Haymount Institute for Psychological Assessment. Her professional interests include research ethics, in particular obtaining consent from vulnerable populations. Her current ELSI-related dissertation research explores issues surrounding obtaining consent in individuals with diminished decisional capacity.

Rachel Haase

Rachel Haase is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill. She received a BA in Anthropology from the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, Canada, and an MA in Social Anthropology from Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia. Her research interests include mental health, psychiatric genetics, devolution and privatization, and understandings of responsibility in the context of health and health care. She is currently working for Debra Skinner on a project investigating participants' experiences of whole-genome analysis studies in high-risk cancer families.

Martha King

Martha King is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill. She received her BA in Archaeology and History from Furman University in 2000 and received her MA in Folklore from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006. Her past research explored identity and representation among community-based expressive culture traditions in Western North Carolina. Her current ELSI-related dissertation research explores the relationship between the Amish settlement around Lancaster, PA and a genetic research and treatment facility serving that community. This research focuses on potential fields of contention, cooperation, and negotiation between the Amish patient population and biomedical practitioners.

Dragana Lassiter

Dragana Lassiter is a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research interests include the institutionalization of bioethics in Serbia as it relates to biobanking, the relationship between bioethics and modernity, and ethics and materiality.

Elizabeth Moore

Elizabeth Moore is a recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, where she received a B.A. in Spanish. She is currently working with Debra Skinner on the Fragile X Newborn Screening Study. Her research interests include public health genomics and the potential of genome sequencing to prevent disease. She is applying to graduate programs in public health where she intends to pursue these interests.

Rachel Mundstock

Rachel Mundstock is a graduate student in the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill. She received a Bachelor of Arts in History at UCLA where she was active in UCLA’s Center for Society and Genetics. Her past research experience was related to the history of science, especially chromosomal history and T.S. Painter, who incorrectly identified 48 human chromosomes; and  the link between race and chromosomes in the early 20th century when eugenics still had a strong hold. Rachel’s current  ELSI research interests lie in privacy, especially patient privacy with electronic health records and genomic information, patient willingness to divulge genomic information, and ownership of genomic information or tissue. 

Harlyn Skinner

Harlyn Skinner, M.S. is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutrition at UNC- Chapel Hill. She received her B.A. in Psychology from Yale University, and M.S. in Biochemistry, and Molecular and Cellular Biology from Georgetown University. Her research interests include genomics, health disparities, obesity prevention, and obesity related health policy. She is currently working for Dr. Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD on Heart Healthy Lenoir (HHL), a project investigating obesity prevention as a means of cardiovascular disease risk prevention in rural North Carolina (http://www.hearthealthylenoir.com/). Her dissertation will focus on re-consent and communication issues related to genetic findings from SNP profiles within the HHL population.

The Center for Genomics and Society is housed within the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

It is supported by the ELSI Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health, Grant Number P50HG004488.