Melanie is the Director of Genetic Counseling Services for the JScreen program at Emory University. JScreen provides patient-initiated clinical testing for expanded carrier screening and cancer screening to people across the United States. She is manager of the genetic counseling team and works on multiple research projects along with her clinical genetic counseling duties.
She has also serves as a clinical supervisor to students multiple genetic counseling programs including UNCG. Melanie graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Michigan State University in 1998 and followed with a 9-year career as a high school biology, chemistry, and forensics teacher. She received a Master’s degree in Biology from Georgia Southern University in 2009 and a Master’s degree in Genetic Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2011.
She was certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 2012. Before joining the JScreen team, Melanie worked as a prenatal genetic counselor in a Maternal Fetal Medicine clinic in Richmond, VA. Her professional interests include community outreach and education, mentorship, provision of telehealth, and enhancement of the healthcare experience. She has publications in peer-reviewed journals, accepted abstracts and presentations on these topics as well.
Public service and leadership are deeply engrained within Melanie. She served as the Central region Representative (2014-2015), then the Board of Directors for the Virginia Association of Genetic Counselors from 2016-2018, then the American Board of Genetic Counselors Board of Directors Nominations Committee Chair in 2019. She has held many service and leadership positions within the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) organization.
She was the Outreach Task Force Leader and Education and Certification Task Force Leader for the NSGC Student/New Member Special Interest Group; NSGC Annual Education Conference Orientation Chair; NSGC Mentor Program Chair; NSGC Leadership and Management Special Interest Group (SIG) Chair in 2019-2020 and previously the Outreach Task Force Leader; NSGC Lab/Industry SIG Chair in 2019-3030 and previously held the Education Subcommittee Chair position in 2018; NSGC Licensure Subcommittee Chair in 2019-2020; Multi-State Licensure Resources Working Group Founder and Chair in 2019-2021; and she is currently serving as the Chair of the 2021-2022 NSGC Annual Conference Program Committee.
In recognition of her phenomenal professional service and leadership, Melanie was awarded the National Society of Genetic Counselors’ New Leader Award in 2014, the NSGC Student/New Member SIG Outstanding Leadership & Activism Scholarship in 2014, the UNCG School of Health and Human Sciences Pacesetter Alumni Award in 2017, and she was a Genome Magazine Code Talker Award Finalist in 2017.
In 2019, Melanie was recognized with the Outstanding Volunteer Leadership Award for involvement in a wide array of professional activities. She received the Association of Genetic Counseling Program Directors (AGCPD) and Emory Genetic Counseling Training Program’s Outstanding Supervisor Award in 2021.