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News Release

HHS NAMES 13 TO SECRETARY'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE
ON GENETICS, HEALTH AND SOCIETY

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today named 13 doctors, scientists and other experts to the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society.

The committee will be chaired by Edward McCabe, M.D., Ph.D., who is the executive chair of the pediatrics department at the University of California-Los Angeles and physician-in-chief at UCLA's Mattel Children's Hospital. The committee's new charge is an expansion of the mission of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing to more broadly consider the impact of genetic technologies on society.

"This committee's members bring strong scientific, professional and personal backgrounds and an understanding of the serious health and ethical issues raised by new genetic technologies," Secretary Thompson said. "Under Dr. McCabe's leadership, they will provide sound and thoughtful advice to the department as we weigh the impact of these advances on the health and welfare of all Americans."

At the department's request, the committee may consider the broad range of human health and societal issues involving the development, use and potential misuse of genetic technologies and make recommendations as appropriate. The committee's charge includes considering the clinical, ethical, legal and societal implications of genetic testing and other technologies, and its members include experts in each of those areas, as well as consumer representatives.

In addition to Dr. McCabe, the newly named committee members are:

• Cynthia E. Berry, J.D., of Great Falls, Va., the general counsel and managing director for Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates.
• Barbara Willis Harrison, M.S., of Washington, D.C., a genetic counselor and instructor both in pediatrics and in health care ethics at Howard University College of Medicine.
• C. Christopher Hook, M.D., of Rochester, Minn., the director of ethics education at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and an assistant professor at the Mayo Medical Clinic.
• Eric S. Lander, Ph.D., of Cambridge, Mass., director of the Whitehead Institute for Genome Research and a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Debra G.B. Leonard, M.D., Ph.D., of Philadelphia, Pa., an associate professor of pathology and director of the Molecular Pathology Laboratory at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
• Brad Margus, of Boca Raton, Fla., co-founder and volunteer president of the A-T Children's Project, which raises funds for research into a lethal childhood genetic neurogenerative disease called ataxia telangiectasia.
• Agnes Masny, R.N., M.P.H., of Roslyn, Pa., a research assistant and nurse practitioner at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and an adjunct assistant professor of nursing at Temple University.
• Joan Reede, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., of Cambridge, Mass., an assistant professor of maternal and child health at the Harvard School of Public Health and an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
• Reed V. Tuckson, M.D., of Minneapolis, Minn., senior vice president of consumer health and medical care advancement at UnitedHealth Group.
• Huntington F. Willard, Ph.D., the incoming director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy and Vice Chancellor for Genome Sciences at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
• Emily S. Winn-Deen, Ph.D., of Pleasanton, Calif., the senior director for genomics business for Roche Molecular Systems.
• Kimberly S. Zellmer, J.D., of Mission Hills, Kan., an attorney and mother to a child with Batten's Disease.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: December 23, 2002