Erin Becker
Associate Director
Dr. Erin Becker is the Associate Director for Data Carpentry, where she leads the organization’s communications and community engagement activities. She received a Ph.D. in computational genomics from UC Davis and completed postdoctoral research at the university’s Center for Educational Effectiveness. Dr. Becker has experience developing and implementing practice-based instructional training programs as well as building community for supporting instructional innovation.
Rinze Benedictus
Staff Advisor
Rinze Benedictus is a staff advisor at the University Medical Center Utrecht and a Ph.D. researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Benedictus was trained a biologist and, after working as a science journalist, is now active in science policy and management. He is involved in the Science in Transition initiative and UMC Utrecht’s efforts to develop and implement new incentives for researchers. His Ph.D. research focuses on the formative effects of these new incentive and reward structures.
Bill Brucker
M.D./Ph.D. candidate, Alpert Medical School
Bill Brucker is in the clinical years of the M.D./Ph.D. program at Brown University. He completed his undergraduate education at Brown as well, playing football and graduating with honors in Chemistry in 2004. Brucker is the Founder & Executive Director of the Providence Alliance of Clinical Educators, a nonprofit organization that produces innovative lessons to help engage students in basic science learning. He has taught students of many levels over the years, including as an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Rhode Island College.
Michael Christman
President and CEO
Michael Christman, Ph.D., is president and chief executive officer of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research. In 2007, Dr. Christman initiated the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative (CPMC), a research study evaluating the utility of using the knowledge of genetics in medicine. Under Dr. Christmans leadership, Coriell has also established a federally-funded Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell lab. This remarkable technology allows a skin or blood cell to be coaxed into becoming nearly any cell type in the body, opening new avenues for research, drug discovery, and eventually therapy.
Timothy Erick
Ph.D. Candidate, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry
Timothy Erick is a Ph.D. candidate in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry at Brown University. He is currently performing thesis research on the development and function of the natural killer cell populations of the murine salivary gland and lacrimal gland.
Sarah Fankhauser
Ph.D. Candidate in Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School
Sarah received her B.S. in Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. That same year she started graduate school at Harvard Medical School, where she is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in immunology and conducting research on the immune response to intracellular bacterial pathogens.
Anne Fausto-Sterling
Nancy Duke Lewis Professor Emerita of Biology & Gender Studies, Department of Molecular & Cell Biology & Biochemistry
Dr. Fausto-Sterling is currently focused on applying dynamic systems theory to the study of gender differentiation in early childhood. Her ambition is to restructure dichotomous conversations — inside the academy, in public discourse, and ultimately in the framing of social policy — in order to enable an understanding of the inseparability of “nature” and “nurture”.
Frank Miedema
Professor, Immunology
Vice-Chairman, Board of the University Medical Center Utrecht
Frank Miedema, Ph.D., is Professor of Immunology and Dean and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the University Medical Center Utrecht. He is one of the founders of Science in Transition, an effort to reform the scientific system to focus on creating value for society. Dr. Miedema studied biochemistry at the University of Groningen, specializing in immunology. He has published hundreds of articles in medical journals, including Nature, Science, and Lancet, and is a member of various national and international scientific organizations and advisory committees.
Erin Riggs
Genetic Counselor, Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute
Erin Rooney Riggs, MS, CGC is a certified genetic counselor at Geisinger Health Systems Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute and the co-coordinator of the International Collaboration for Clinical Genomics (ICCG). Previously, she served as a clinical genetic counselor at Emory University School of Medicine, focusing on general pediatrics and lysosomal storage disorders. Her research interests include the identification and characterization of the genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disorders, the effects of gene dosage, and the clinical utility of genomic testing.
Christopher Tan
Senior Genetic Counselor, Department of Human Genetics
Chris graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2007 with a Master of Science in Human Genetics and was certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 2009. He joined the University of Chicago as a Genetic Counselor in 2007, where his responsibilities covered general pediatrics, prenatal, newborn screening, and laboratory counseling. Over the years, he has also been involved in a variety of specialty clinics, including ophthalmology and neurogenetics. He is currently the Senior Genetic Counselor for the University of Chicago Genetic Services, an academic DNA diagnostic laboratory that tests rare orphan genetic diseases.
Karen Wain
Certified Genetic Counselor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Karen received a degree in biology from Luther College (Decorah, IA) in 2000 and a Master of Science degree in Human Genetics, Genetic Counseling from the University of Michigan in 2007. She is a genetic counselor in the Mayo Clinic Cytogenetics Laboratory. In addition, she is a member of the Education, Engagement, and Ethics Workgroup and the Structural Variation Workgroup for the International Collaboration for Clinical Genomics (ICCG). She also provides genetic counseling services for patients with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) and chromosome anomalies. Her research interests include psychosocial issues in genetic counseling, adult and pediatric clinical genetics, HHT, and cytogenetics.
Sarah Weil
After a plant-centric introduction to biology, Sarah Weil became interested in molecular and cellular biology and earned a PhD from Columbia Universitys Biological Sciences Program. She now works as a medical writer.