Our Cancer Risk & Prevention Team

Elizabeth Andretich, RN, BSN, is a genetics nurse at University of Chicago Medicine. She completed the Intensive Course in Genomic Cancer Risk Assessment at City of Hope in 2018. She has been working with Dr. Andrea Amico in cancer risk genetics since 2018. Elizabeth earned her bachelor's degree in health science from Purdue University and her bachelor's degree in nursing from Lewis University.

 

Christine Drogan, MS, LGCG, is a board-certified Genetic Counselor in the Section of Gastroenterology at the University of Chicago and is licensed to practice in the state of Illinois.  She graduated from the genetic counseling master’s program at the University of Pittsburgh in 2020, during which she completed a thesis project evaluating the use of educational video for pancreatic patients undergoing genetic testing.  Since graduation, Christine has worked with Dr. Sonia Kupfer to evaluate and manage patients with hereditary gastrointestinal cancer predisposition syndromes.  Her professional and research interests include genetic counseling of families at high risk of pancreatic cancer, and expanding access of genetic services to underserved populations on the South Side of Chicago.  Christine is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the International Collaboration of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancers (CGA-IGC), of which she serves on the communications and membership committee.

 

Feighanne Hathaway, MS, CGC, is a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor in the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago Medicine. Hathaway received her bachelor of science in liberal arts and sciences from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and a master of science in genetics from Sarah Lawrence College. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Hathaway established genetic counseling services at the NYU Clinical Cancer Center when it opened. She was a part of the National Ovarian Cancer Early Detection Program and co-started a support group for young women with BRCA mutations at NYU. Her research interests include genetic susceptibility to breast, ovarian and prostate cancers, as well as other rare cancers. Additionally, she is interested in making genetic services available to underrepresented or underserved populations as well as training more professionals in genetics to meet the growing demands of genetic testing. She is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) and the Genetic Task Force of Illinois and currently serves as the co-chair for the Cancer SIG Communications Division at NSGC.

Emma Keel, MS, LCGC, is a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor in the Section of Gastroenterology at the University of Chicago Medicine. She received her bachelor of science degree in biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her master of science degree in genetic counseling from The Ohio State University. As part of her graduate work, she did research on genetic testing outcomes and somatic landscapes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) population. Since graduation, Emma has worked on the GI Cancer Risk and Prevention team with Sonia Kupfer, MD, and Christine Drogan, MS, LCGC, to evaluate and manage patients with hereditary gastrointestinal cancer predisposition syndromes. Her clinical and research interests include hereditary polyposis syndromes and counseling patients and families with rare cancer predisposition syndromes. She has a passion for working with underserved populations and enjoys helping patients and families understand their risks so that they can feel empowered to advocate for themselves and make educated decisions about their healthcare.  Emma is a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors and the International Collaboration of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancers (CGA-IGC), for which she serves on the education committee.
 

Melody Perpich, MS, CGC, is a board certified and licensed genetic counselor working in pediatric oncology and hematology-oncology, UChicago Medicine, since April 2016. Perpich completed her graduate training in genetic counseling at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1987. She has a diverse background in prenatal, pediatric, preimplantation and cancer genetics.

Perpich currently provides genetic counseling and cancer risk assessment to families with inherited cancer predisposition. In this role she also counsels pediatric, adolescent and young adult (AYA) and adult patients with solid tumor and hematologic malignancies and the young survivorship population.   Prior to her current position, Perpich developed the Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Creticos Cancer Center at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. Previously, she worked at the UChicago Medicine for ten years in the adult Cancer Risk Program, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center for ten years as a prenatal and preimplantation genetic counselor, and at the University of Illinois, Chicago as a pediatric and prenatal genetic counselor. 

Perpich has been a supervisor and mentor for graduate students from the Northwestern University Genetic Counseling Program since 2000, has been an active member of the Illinois Society of Genetics Professionals (ISGP) and the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC), and has been a speaker and educational content editor for Bright Pink. She is a member of the PTEN expert panel variant curation team through ClinGen and co-chair for the pediatric subcommittee of the NSGC Cancer Special Interest Group (2022-2023). Perpich has written and co-authored articles on a broad range of topics including cancer genetics, preimplantation and prenatal genetics.