An Educator's Resource on Discussing Cultural Awareness and Competency around Human Genetics

Neil Risch is the Lamond Family Foundation Distinguished Professor in Human Genetics, Founding Director of the Institute for Human Genetics, and Professor and former chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco.  Dr. Risch received his undergraduate training at the California Institute of Technology in mathematics and received his Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles in Biomathematics.  Prior to coming to UCSF in 2005, Dr. Risch held professorships at Columbia, Yale, and Stanford Universities.  Dr. Risch's research interests are in the areas of human genetics, population genetics and evolution, genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics, where he has published extensively. He is the recipient of the Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics for his contributions to human genetics.  He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the California Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.  He is past president of the American Society of Human Genetics.  He is recognized for his novel statistical approaches to the genetic study of common, complex diseases, in particular the introduction of genome-wide association studies.  

Digna Velez Edwards, PhD, MS, is a genetic epidemiologist, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of the Division of Quantitative Sciences in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of Women's Health Research center, and is Co-Director of the Initiative to Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) training program. She has doctoral training in human genetics and has a master's degree in statistics. She started as faculty in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2010 pursuing research focused on understanding the genetic determinants of health disparities and the role of gene and environment interactions in the risk for complex diseases, with a specific interest in fibroproliferative disorders that include uterine fibroids and keloids and diseases that disproportionately impact women's reproductive health. She is also actively engaged in early career faculty and graduate student training through her role as Associate Program Director of the Vanderbilt’s Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health K12 Program that focuses on training faculty in sex and gender research careers, as well her role as Co-Director of the IMSD graduate student training program.

Maurice Godfrey earned the Ph.D. in Pathobiology and Immunology from Columbia University in New York. Following a fellowship at Shriners Hospital for Children he joined the University of Nebraska Medical Center where he is now Professor in the Munroe-Meyer Institute. Among his honors are: Basil O’Connor Scholar of the March of Dimes; Established Investigator of the American Heart Association; Antoine Marfan Award of the Marfan Foundation; Chief Standing Bear Organizational Award from the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs; and the Visionary Leadership in Education Award from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is the Chair of the Public Education and Awareness Committee of the American Society of Human Genetics and Associate Editor of the Journal of STEMOutreach. Since 2005 he has led NIH funded programs to bring health and science education to schools and communities on Indian reservations in Nebraska and South Dakota.