Biography

Ms. Loud received her B.S. in Nursing from Old Dominion University in 1981, followed by an M.S. in Nursing as an Adult Nurse Practitioner from George Mason University in 1992. She spent six years with the Medical Oncology Branch of NCI, as a Certified, Registered Oncology Nurse Practitioner, working with individuals enrolled in clinical trials of new cancer treatments. During that time, she was a Clinical Trials Coordinator and an Associate Investigator on two chemoprevention trials for women at increased risk of breast cancer. This led to an interest in cancer genetics, in pursuit of which she has taken both the Basic and the Advanced Courses in Cancer Genetics for Clinical Nurse Specialists at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She is now a Cancer Genetics Research Nurse with the Clinical Genetics Branch, DCEG/NCI.

Research Interests

Ms. Loud is providing cancer genetic research nurse support to ongoing Clinical Genetics Branch protocols. In addition, she is developing a research program which will approach the emotional and psychosocial impact of being identified as an individual who is at high genetic risk of developing cancer from the cancer genetic nursing perspective. Current research interests include assessment of the impact of risk identification and risk management as they affect various aspects of an individual's life. As CGB investigates the clinical implications of carrying mutations in cancer susceptibility genes, and develops novel approaches to risk management, we also hope to learn how these strategies affect individuals and their families.

Collaborators

DCEG Collaborators

• Mary C. Fraser, M.S.N., Ruthann Giusti, M.D., M.S.P.H., Mark H. Greene, M.D., Katherine McGlynn, Ph.D., Mary Lou McMaster, M.D., M.P.H., June Peters, M.S., Nancy Weissman, M.S.S.W.