Katie Lang, MS, is a Senior Associate in the Division of Genetic Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
She received a Master of Science in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science in genetic counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). At VCU, Lang was the only genetic counseling student to ever be honored with the Charles C. Clayton Award from the School of Medicine, which honors graduate students for both academic and research achievements. After graduation from VCU, she was awarded the only hereditary cancer genetic counseling fellowship position in the country at the Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research at Georgetown University.
Upon completing her fellowship, Lang relocated to Atlanta to begin working at the Hereditary Cancer Program at the Northside Hospital Cancer Institute, one of the largest community cancer centers in the country. She was the coordinator of the program from 2014 to 2020 during which she led the expansion of the program from three to seven genetic counselors and from one to four full-time support staff. Upon her departure, the Northside program served over 450 unique referring providers a year, had seven in-person locations, and provided weekly telegenetics services to nine rural medical oncology clinics.
Lang is a founding member and the first-ever elected President of the Georgia Association of Genetic Counselors. She then served on the board again as the Committee Director, and it was in this role she spear-headed the successful efforts to pass a genetic counselor licensure bill. She is passionate about improving patient access to genetic counseling services and developing and implementing alternative models to better meet the needs of both patients and providers seeking genetics services.