Skip to Content
University of Northern Colorado, BS, Biological Sciences, 2010
Megan graduated from University of Northern Colorado (2010) with a bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences and a minor in chemistry. As an undergraduate she worked in a biology research lab looking at herb-drug interactions in transgenic mice. Megan started working in the Schwartz Lab as a student intern in the summer of 2010 under the direction of Dr. Ivana Yang, Beth Davidson, and Corinne Hennessy. As a Biomedical Research Trainee, she performs CHARM for both the Asthma Epigenetics and LGRC projects.
Grand Valley State University, BS, Biomedical Science, 2008Grand Valley State University, MS, Medical and Bioinformatics, 2010
Joseph Brown, pursuing his passion for the advancement of science, received his master's degree in Medical and Bioinformatics from Grand Valley State University. Brown joined National Jewish Health as a bioinformatics analyst after leaving the laboratory of Cancer Immunodiagnostics at Van Andel Institute. Here he will be supporting research though computational analysis and software development.
State University of New York at Cortland, BS, Biological Sciences
Since starting at National Jewish Health in September 2008, Elizabeth has been involved in various innate immunity projects. Most recently she has been working on a new array called Comprehensive High-Throughput Arrays for Relative Methylation or CHARM. She will use this array to measure the amount of DNA methylation in discordant sibling pairs with asthma.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, BS, Biochemistry and Horticulture, 2008
Lesly graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2008 with bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and horticulture. While there, she researched phospholamban, a small phosphoprotein that regulates the Ca-ATPase in the heart. Lesly currently works as a Lab Researcher II in the Alper Lab studying the cell signaling pathways within macrophage cell lines.
Dr. Farias-Hesson has an extensive background in environmental microbiology researching microbial diversity associated with the degradation of PCBs and other industrial pollutants. She started working using next generation sequencing when she joined a Bionanotechnology lab at the University of California Santa Cruz. She worked as a lab manager and a sequencing specialist for 2 years preparing DNA/ RNA samples for sequencing using the SOLiD platform at the UCSC Genomic Center, a core lab that supports various projects of the UC system research community. She currently is working on making next-generation sequencing accessible to the National Jewish Health research community.
Corinne earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Union College in New York. She came to CGEH in November 2009 from Philadelphia where she was a Sr. Technician in the molecular genetics and histocompatibily lab at the American Red Cross. She has five years lab experience isolating DNA, and performing downstream applications such as PCR, hybridization and sequencing and will be working on the DNA extraction of control samples and genome wide methylation profiles using the CHARM method for the LGRC project.
Dolly is a respiratory therapist and certified clinical research coordinator. Her respiratory therapy career began as a staff respiratory therapist in the Medical, Pediatric and Burn & Trauma Intensive Care Units at the University of New Mexico. In 1981 she came to National Jewish Health as a staff respiratory therapist where she began the first Quit Smoking Program, and in 1982 she became the Acting-Director of the Respiratory Therapy Program. In 1983 Ms. Kervitsky began her research career as the Clinical Coordinator for the Specialized Center of Research investigating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. This research was instrumental to the development of the Interstitial and Autoimmune Lung Disease Program. In 2008 Ms. Kervitsky founded the Genetic Counseling Program for Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis at National Jewish Health. She has served as lead coordinator and steering committee member for several international multi-center research trials. Currently she serves on the Patient Education Advisory Committee and Capitol Hill Delegate Team for the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis and the Medical Advisory Committee for the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. She is a member of the American Thoracic Society, American College of Chest Physicians, Association of Respiratory Care, and the Association of Clinical Research Professionals.
University of Colorado at Boulder, BS, Computer Science, 2003
Nathan has a bachelor's degree in computer science. He previously worked as a software developer in the IT services industry. He administers the Center's servers and databases, and creates tools to analyze and report various data.
University of Maine, BS, Biochemistry, 1985 University of Maine, PhD, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1991
Dr. LaFlamme has spent most of his career as a laboratory manager and technical specialist applying high-throughput molecular biology processes to both agricultural and clinical settings. In the CGEH, Dr. LaFlamme assists in making the available genotyping, gene expression and sequencing technologies accessible to both laboratory members and other personnel through the core services.
Muhlenberg College, BS, Biology Northeastern University, MS, Microbial Ecology
Elissa is a Research Technician and Lab Manager in the Schwartz Lab, focusing mainly on Whole Genome Sequencing on the ABI SOLiD sequencer. She comes from a varied research background both in M. tuberculosis, C. elegans, and marine ciliate molecular genetics. She has a bachelor's degree in biology from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, and a master's degree in microbial ecology from Northeastern University in Boston. Early on in her career, Elissa had loftier goals in mind for her future in biological research. However, once she discovered her ridiculous obsession with bicycles, she realized that being able to leave work behind at the end of the day was a far more appealing way of life.
Tennessee Technological University, BS University of Colorado Denver, MS, Genetic Counseling, 2007
Janet has been part of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at National Jewish Health since 2003 coordinating the Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis genetic research study. In 2007, she earned her master's degree in genetics and biophysics and began providing genetic counseling services for the institution and to patients and families with IPF. In addition, she manages the Familial Pulmonary Fibrosis Genetic Counseling line supported by the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF). She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Genetic Counselors in 2009.
The University of Akron, BS, Biology, 2004
Leah has been involved in various research projects since graduating college in 2004. As a Lab Researcher in the Schwartz Lab, she is working on projects within innate immunity and epigenetics.
University of Florida, 2007, BS
Cydney graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Biology. For two years, she worked in UF’s Department of Urology doing prostate cancer research. In 2009, Cydney moved to Colorado to work for the University of Colorado doing Renal Disease & Hypertension research. Her research now is focused on translational genetics of lung diseases. Currently, she is working with Dr. Seibold to understand how genetic variation in the MUC5B promoter contributes to the variation in MUC5B gene expression observed between healthy subjects and those with pulmonary fibrosis.
Pennsylvania State University, BS, Biology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
Laura focuses on innate immunity with Dr. Ivana Yang. Their projects use mice and cells to screen for genes that may be involved in the immune response. Human DNA samples provide the basis of studies that attempt to determine genes related to sepsis, a common cause of death in intensive care units. Laura previously worked at the Pennsylvania State University, where she graduated with bachelor's degrees in biology and biochemistry/molecular biology. At Penn State, she studied the genetics of the thistle Carduus nutans as related to its invasion pattern.
Learn about current open positions in the Center for Genes, Environment, & Health (CGEH).
