Mr. Williams is Assistant Director, Inclusion and Research Readiness at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center where he develops national biology education programs. Mr. Williams has delivered professional development and training for thousands of students, researchers and educators in bioinformatics, data science, and molecular biology. His focus has been developing bioinformatics in undergraduate education and career-spanning learning for biologists. Jason is founder of LifeSciTrainers.org – a global effort to promote community of practice among professionals who develop short-format training for life scientists. Jason is advisory to cyberinfrastructure, bioinformatics, and education projects and initiatives in the US, UK, Europe, and Australia.

Dan Shay is a non-traditional scientist. After graduating college with a Bachelor’s degree, Dan taught environmental education for several years before receiving his Master’s in Teaching in 2013. For the last 11 years, Dan has taught and directed a specialized Biotechnology Career and Technical Education program at a North Central High School. The goal of this program is to teach students the skills they need to enter into a career in biotechnology research. In the 5 years that he has directed the program, Dan has received over $100k in funding to update the technological infrastructure of his lab, some of this went towards purchasing the Oxford Nanopore minION and developing protocols for students to collect and analyze sequencing data as a class. Dan was the recipient of the 2021 Washington State Science and Engineering Fair Teacher of the Year award and the 2023 WA State Outstanding Biology Teacher Award. 

Katharina Wolff is currently a doctoral candidate at TU Braunschweig, working with Prof. Dr. Boas Pucker in the group “Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics”. Her research spans the realms of Synthetic Biology, Plant Genomics, and Bioinformatics, seamlessly blending wet lab and dry lab methodologies. Within the workgroup, Katharina oversees the operations at the ONT Sequencing Facility. Her role involves leveraging her expertise in both wet lab techniques and bioinformatics to conduct thorough and comprehensive genomic analyses. Additionally, Katharina has developed and supervised a practical Data Literacy in Genome Research course in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Boas Pucker.

Laura K. Reed is a Professor of Biology at the University of Alabama.  Dr. Reed received her BS in Biology (University of Oregon), her PhD in Ecology and Evolution (University of Arizona), was NIH-NRSA postdoctoral fellow (North Carolina State University), and joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in 2010. Her research focuses on the evolutionary genomics of complex traits and effective science education methodology. She directs the Genomics Education Partnership (thegep.org), a collaboration dedicated to bringing course-based genomics research experiences into undergraduate courses across the US.

Dr. Gabrielle Lemire is a medical geneticist certified under the Royal College of Physicians of Canada who currently trains at Boston Children’s Hospital and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She completed her medical and residency training in medical genetics at Université de Montréal and a clinical research fellowship with the Care4Rare Canada Consortium at the University of Ottawa. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Anne O’Donnell-Luria’s laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr Lemire performs exome and genome analyses to identify rare disease diagnoses and novel gene discovery. Her research focuses on developing novel approaches to investigate undiagnosed rare genetic diseases, understanding their molecular mechanism, and improve phenotype delineation of rare diseases. 

Dr. Sanchis-Juan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Genomic Medicine MGH, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Alba completed her PhD in Biotechnology at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge, and joined the Talkowski laboratory in 2020. Her research has focused on the discovery of unknown etiological genes and variants in coding and non-coding regions of the genome of patients with rare diseases, with a particular focus on identification and resolution of structural variants and complex rearrangements using short- and long-read whole-genome sequencing technologies. Currently, she is leading large-scale population and clinical genomics efforts to aggregate the largest collection of rare disease cases to date to combine the full spectrum of genetic variants to empower gene and variant discovery causing rare diseases.

Dr. Harrison Brand is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Broad Structural Variation Group. Research in his lab focuses on the development of novel methods for the analysis of structural variation (SV) from whole genome sequencing data and application of these methods to decipher the genetic architecture of structural birth defects and other developmental disorders. He served as one of the primary developers of the cloud-based GATK structural variant caller (GATK-SV) and has led efforts to generate robust SV reference databases for the genomic community in cohorts such as gnomAD, 1000 genomes, and All of Us. 

Dr. O’Donnell-Luria is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Institute Member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Her research is focused on improving the diagnosis of rare disease. She obtained her MD/PhD degrees from Columbia University Medical School and residency training in Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics, and Medical Biochemical Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital. She is part of several collaborative studies in genomics including the GREGoR consortium, NeuroDev Project, gnomAD consortium, CAGI consortium, and ClinGen. Her research is focused on methods and technologies to improve rare disease diagnosis given that half of patients remain undiagnosed. 

Jason Vassy, MD, MPH, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and clinician-investigator at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System. He is a practicing primary care internist and researcher in the implementation and evaluation of genomic medicine interventions. For the last decade, he has directed the Genomes2Veterans Research Program at VA Boston, where his research examines the clinical utility of genetic and genomic testing in various primary care clinical contexts, including clinical trials of pharmacogenetic testing, polygenic risk score testing, and return of unanticipated genetic results. 

Kopika Kuhathaas is a Board Eligible Genetic Counselor. She holds a Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the MGH Institute of Health Professions and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Waterloo. Kopika’s graduate thesis project examined clinicians' perspectives and their approaches to managing direct-to-consumer genetic testing in their practice. She has worked with a number of research programs, such as the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, where she contributed to various projects and provided compassionate support to participants with rare diseases and their families. Kopika is passionate about improving equitable access to genetic testing and services.

Mylynda B. Massart, MD, PhD, is a board-certified Family Medicine physician at UPMC, and associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the founder and Medical Director of the UPMC Primary Care Precision Medicine clinic, and as the Associate Director of Clinical Services for the Institute for Precision Medicine. Dr. Massart is a core director at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CSTI). Dr. Massart serves as one of the co-Investigators for the All of US Pennsylvania research project working on community education and engagement and as MPI of The Community Engagement Alliance Consultative Resource (CEACR).

Dr. Pamela Ganschow is the Director of the Cancer Prevention and Survivorship program at the University of Illinois Cancer Center in Chicago transitioning to her position there in March of 2021 after 23 years on faculty at Cook County Health. She is an oncogeneralist who trained in internal medicine at Northwestern University and now focuses her clinical care and research primarily on cancer along the continuum of care from prevention and screening through survivorship. She has dedicated her professional life to work in cancer control research and education, building innovative programs that enable equitable, high-quality access to cancer screening and prevention services for underserved populations with a recent focus on embedding cancer survivorship and cancer genetic services into the primary care space.

Adam Buchanan is Associate Professor and Chair of the Geisinger Department of Genomic Health, an NIH-funded investigator, and board-certified and licensed genetic counselor with 20 years of research experience in assessing genetic counseling outcomes and risk management behaviors. He has clinical expertise in genetic counseling among, and genomic screening for, individuals at increased risk of hereditary cancer, inherited cardiovascular disease and other genetic conditions. Further, he is a master’s trained behavioral scientist and has completed mentored training in implementation science methodology at the National Cancer Institute. Mr. Buchanan is on the leadership group of the MyCode Genomic Screening and Counseling program, which conducts population screening for clinically actionable genetic disease risk.

Dr. Wagner is a Principal Investigator at The Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine (IGM) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He analyzed the content of multiple public knowledgebases of the Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC) and demonstrated the need for data standards and supporting tools for genomic knowledge sharing and reuse. From this work, he took on the development and application of genomic knowledge standards under the auspices of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). In 2021, Dr. Wagner was recognized by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) as an NHGRI Genomic Innovator for his work in this area. He currently holds leadership and/or invited positions in multiple national and international consortia, including GA4GH, the NIH Bridge2AI program, the HGVS Variant Nomenclature Committee, and the Variant Interpretation for Cancer Consortium (VICC).

Since August 2018, Mr. Babb has served as a Senior Principal Software Engineer at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The last 20 years of his 40-year software engineering career has centered on creating software tools and interoperable data standards to enhance genetic testing in clinical settings. Mr. Babb specializes in data modeling and standards development, particularly in applying genomic knowledge to test results. Mr. Babb co-leads the GA4GH Genomic Knowledge Standards and the ClinGen Data Platform Workgroup, promoting open-data sharing in genomics. Additionally, Mr. Babb manages software teams for ClinGen and the Translational Genomics Group at Broad.

Paul S. Appelbaum, M.D. is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Law, and Director, Center for Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. For 13 years, he directed Columbia’s NHGRI-funded Center of Excellence in ELSI Research. His recent research has focused on the ethical and psychosocial impact of advances in genetics. Dr. Appelbaum is a Past President of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, now chairs the APA’s DSM Steering Committee, and is a member (and former chair) of the Standing Committee on Ethics of the World Psychiatric Association. He has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Appelbaum is a graduate of Columbia College, received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed his psychiatry residency at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center/Harvard Medical School.