Since beginning my career at Pitt Public Health, my appreciation for external influences on health – accessibility, transportation, and built environment – has grown immensely. The University of Pittsburgh is one of few schools in the country to offer a dual Master of Public Health (MPH) in Public Health Genetics and Master of Science in Genetic Counseling (MSGC) degree. The MPH gives me a unique perspective when approaching case preparation and patient interactions. Working directly with individuals in outpatient clinics as well as underserved communities in the greater Pittsburgh area has highlighted gaps in care and sparked ideas of how, as providers, we can work on transdisciplinary teams to close those gaps. The MPH also exposed me to more disciplines that I may interface with in my career – social work, physical therapy and occupational therapy, as well as environmental and occupational health, to name a few.
As a student currently in the dual degree program, I recognize some of the benefits of pursuing an MPH in addition to my MSGC degree; however, I think there are some things you can only glean from working in the field. With the innumerable opportunities available to students in genetic counseling and public health programs, I thought it would be helpful to hear from two currently practicing genetic counselors on how their dual degrees (MPH/MSGC) are serving them in their unique careers.
I spoke with Kerrianne Fry, MS, MPH, CGC and Aishwarya Arjunan, MS, MPH, CGC, CPH, two Pitt MPH/MSGC alumnae. Kerrianne attended Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in Biology with a Health Sciences concentration and minored in Psychology. She then attended the University of Pittsburgh, beginning with her MPH in Public Health Genetics and graduating with a dual degree in 2016. Aishwarya completed her undergraduate education at Case Western Reserve University, majoring in Biology. She continued on to the University of Pittsburgh to complete her Master of Public Health degree. After a year at Pitt, she matriculated into the genetic counseling program, graduating with a dual degree in 2013. Read on to hear about their journeys with the MPH and what they’ve been up to since graduation.
Why did you decide to pursue a dual degree?
Kerrianne: I kind of tripped and stumbled into the dual degree. I was accepted into the MPH first. I had applied for both the MS and MPH, but I wasn’t accepted into the MS program my first application cycle. I decided to continue on the path of the MPH because I knew genetics was where my passion lied. I reapplied to get into the MS program the next year and was accepted. I don’t think I fully appreciated the finer aspects of the MPH until I was into my working career, and I recognized what my passions were. I realized the MPH strongly aligned with who I am – my core values as a person. I think it marries what I really enjoy and am passionate about. I always explain it to people that the MS degree is one-on-one conversation, and the MPH is the bridge between the whole population and getting to the one-on-one conversation – the bridge that builds the gap between the general population and how we get them to that individualized care. So, I’ve always seen them as one integrated program rather than seeing them as two distinctly defined degrees. I always looked at how I could pull my knowledge base together.
Aishwarya: I think public health was something I became interested in in college. I was a biology major, but I also took anthropology classes and some sociology classes in which public health would come up in conversation. Then at the end of senior year [of college], I decided to apply to public health programs. [Public health] was something I was really interested in, and Pitt was the only one that had a public health degree in genetics. I was always looking to be in a healthcare space. I hadn’t heard about genetic counseling until senior year when I was in a developmental biology lab class. The post doc teaching the class asked if I’d heard of genetic counseling, so I talked to one of the genetic counseling program directors to learn more. They told me what prerequisites and extracurriculars I needed, like crisis counseling. It was already into one semester of senior year, so I thought, ‘I’ve already applied to grad programs. Maybe this isn’t for me.’ I went to Pitt for my public health degree. In the Intro to Public Health Genetics class, one of the directors of Pitt’s MPH Public Health Genetics program pulled me aside very early on and said, ‘Have you thought about genetic counseling?’ These are two people that I don’t know very well who are saying this is a career I need to look into, so I set up observations with the genetic counselors in Pitt, and then ended up applying to the Pitt Genetic Counseling program that Fall. It’s been a blessing because this is not what I had planned for my life, but this has been perfect for me.
Would you share what your GC journey has looked like since graduation? Where has your career taken you?
Kerrianne: I’ve worked in many different domains as a genetic counselor. I was previously working in the clinic, where my main passion was newborn screening which has a strong public health component to it. I was talking to people in one-on-one conversations who have these conditions that were diagnosed from a population health standpoint. I now work for Myriad in the lab industry, which I think is where my MPH kicked in even more. My passion as a genetic counselor is lab utilization and optimization. I really like the behind-the-scenes work. I love chatting with patients one-on-one and families, but my ultimate goal is working on projects that can improve the physician and patient experience. ‘What can I do on the back end to make it an even better outcome for both parties, individually and collectively, so that patients can get the best care possible?’ I want to make sure the most appropriate testing is being ordered and ensure providers know what testing exists to help their patient.
Aishwarya: I’m in industry now, but when I graduated, I found a job where I felt like I could really combine the public health and genetic counseling degrees. Eighty percent of my job was with the Center for Jewish Genetics, which is part of the Jewish Federation in Chicago, and twenty percent of my job was clinical pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital. My role at the hospital was clinical pediatrics, seeing patients who were coming in and working with the medical geneticists. My role [at the Center for Jewish Genetics] was to be educating the Chicagoan Jewish community about genetics and genetic testing, primarily carrier screening. They used to have a program that would happen every other month at local synagogues where people would come in, listen to a presentation about carrier screening and risks, and have their blood drawn to be sent for testing. When I joined, I switched that program to a virtual format and made it a continuous program that people could sign up whenever they want, watch a series of educational videos, and we would reach out to them once they completed that to answer any questions they might have had. We would mail a [saliva] kit to their house. They would get the kits, give their sample, and send it back to the lab; I would get the results and follow up to do the counseling. It was an opportunity to do a lot of education and public health genetics awareness. I was at the Center for Jewish Genetics for a little over two years, and then switched to industry [in 2015] to work as a medical science liaison (MSL) at Counsyl. I was an MSL for a few years, and then I switched over to product. I was the clinical product manager for the expanded carrier screening. I joined GRAIL, Inc. in May 2021 as an MSL.
Do you think having the dual degree has helped you in your genetic counseling career? If so, how?
Kerrianne: The MPH focuses on all the other specialties you can run into – health administration, epidemiology, behavioral health sciences – all the specialties that I would want to refer to or that might refer to me. The dual degree has made me more cognizant of other key stakeholders and the importance we all play, independently and cohesively. The MPH, for me, has built the acknowledgement that other teams are equally important to genetics in different ways. It has broadened my awareness and respect of other practices before I even set foot in a clinic. I think that’s one of the biggest differences I see between me and a lot of genetic counselors I’ve practiced with in the past. I’ve always looked at it from a much bigger picture; I recognize I can’t be my best self without the support of different teams of providers. I always thought that I was just a different genetic counselor. I’ve learned a lot of that is from my MPH training.
Aishwarya: I really think the dual degree helps. More and more of the general public is getting access to genetic testing and genetic information one way or another. "Personalized medicine" is the buzz word. I think there are so many ways that genetics is intertwined into people’s care that they don’t even realize. I think we need to be doing more; public health genetics is very important and it’s what drives my role. I strongly believe that if I can help educate or empower one provider to be more comfortable and understand the testing that they’re offering and offer better pre-test counseling, the downstream impact is much larger than I could’ve had seeing patients one-on-one. I think it would be beneficial for a lot of people to have more of a public health background to really understand how everything fits together. I think the public health degree is so useful because it gives you more perspective outside of what might be your area of expertise. With the MPH, I had to take an environmental and health sciences class, as well as health policy and management – additional things that you don’t take as a genetic counseling student. We need to have as much exposure to things outside of our area because those things have an impact on what we do. I think it helps us to be more open-minded about how we fit into the picture.
What advice would you give to students thinking about completing an MPH in addition to an MSGC?
Kerrianne: When I first graduated with my MPH, I wasn’t sure why I put myself in one additional year of debt, but when I reflect on my MPH, there were so many classes I loved that taught me how other specialties approached a situation, what types of resolutions they could provide, what gaps there may be, and where genetics or another specialty could fill that space. A lot of what the MPH taught me is to think about the upstream and downstream factors that could influence the indications bringing individuals into the genetics clinic. If we’re all willing to state our voices and listen to others to work together, it’s all going to go so much better.
Aishwarya: Just understanding other perspectives, it really helps me be a better genetic counselor. I have a classmate who got an MPH after we finished grad school and a few years later said, ‘This is really important.’ Genetics is already everywhere, and being able to have the public health lens and understanding will help you think wider than our genetics space. I don’t think I knew all the possibilities of different roles that I could do when I was graduating. There’s such a diverse variety of roles that are available for genetic counselors to thrive in. There are so many ways we can use our genetic counseling skills that we shouldn’t hold ourselves back. I think our genetic counseling degree gives us a great base and there’s so many things we can grow from, do, and learn.
If I had to pare down what I learned from meeting with these accomplished genetic counselors, I would say, think outside the box and build your network. Not everything has a genetic cause. Convergence of environmental factors and genetics can account for more indications than you may expect. Building your network will open opportunities for mentorship, as well as growth to help ensure a better patient experience.
Thank you to Kerrianne and Aishwarya for taking time out of their busy schedules to provide insight on their unique journeys with the dual degree.
*Responses have been
shortened for length purposes.
For more information on
Pitt’s dual MPH/MSGC degree, visit: https://www.sph.pitt.edu/hugen/academics/dual-mphms-genetic-counseling
