The University Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Department of Medical Genetics

In my current role at UT Health, I serve as a genetic counselor at the Gulf States Hemophilia and Thrombophilia Center. This position allows me the unique opportunity to serve both pediatric and adult populations with rare bleeding disorders, sometimes requiring counseling of multiple generations of the same family who are affected in diverse ways depending on their age, sex, and severity of condition. While I do not have a research program, I would like to harness the valuable information gathered from these families to study impacts of hemophilia, an X-linked condition, on families across generations. In 2024, Gulf States became the first facility to provide gene therapy for Hemophilia A in the state of Texas and in 2025, the first to provide gene therapy for Hemophilia B. In my role as a genetic counselor, I discuss the possibility of gene therapy with patients and would like to study the perception of gene therapy in adults compared to children and males compared to females, with hemophilia. Furthermore, I would like to study the utility of broad genetic testing for individuals with thrombosis and establish novel genotype-phenotype associations for novel variants found through clinical testing in individuals with thrombophilia. My graduate research included work on cascade genetic testing for families with hereditary cancer syndromes, using a retrospective chart review approach. I would like to further evaluate cascade testing in families of individuals with hemophilia and thrombophilia to study risk perception.

 

Education & Training

MS, Baylor College of Medicine, 2024