Stepping Into Your Genes 2024
Learn it. Own it. Live it.

Step into your genes in this interactive genetic program in partnership with Hope Abounds Cancer Network and UNCW College of Health and Human Services. Using a toolkit, you'll learn your risk for hereditary cancer and how to empower health care decision-making and self-advocacy to provide meaningful connections with your genetic history to Learn it, Own it, Live it.

Learn it. Own it. Live it.

Health & Human Services Week at UNC Wilmington

Hope Abounds Cancer Network and UNC Wilmington College of Health and Human Services are partnering to present Stepping Into Your Genes: Learn Your Risk for Hereditary Cancer as part of the Health Transformation Lecture Series the week of April 8, 2024

McNeill Hall

9:00-12:00: Stepping Into Your Genes
Location: McNeill Hall Room 1051

Speaker Information

Heather King, MBA, D.HSc. Candidate

With a strong patient focus and determination to improve patient care and outcomes, Heather has been a part of Hope Abounds Cancer Network in various roles over the last decade.

Heather has both for-profit and non-profit experience in multiple roles, educating patients, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and governmental bodies on the benefits of genetic and genomic testing.

Through her advocacy efforts, Heather’s ultimate vision is for precision medicine to be precise for every patient. Heather is also a professor at Jack Welch Management Institute, teaching MBA students business communications and executive presence while working towards her Doctorate in Health Sciences.

Katie Griffin, CGC

Katie was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, before relocating to North Carolina, where she got her Master’s in Genetic Counseling from UNCG in 2023. Enjoying the state of North Carolina enough to want to stay, she recently became the first cancer genetic counselor in Wilmington through her position with Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

She first learned about the profession of genetic counseling through a professional event hosted by her undergraduate university, UCLA. Following graduation with a major in biochemistry and a minor in classical civilizations, she worked in multiple positions at biotechnology companies, both in the laboratory doing gene sequencing and in an administrative role as a project manager.

Katie is thrilled to bring cancer genetic counseling services to the coast and serve the local community.