Jehannine Austin

Jehannine is a Professor in Psychiatry & Medical Genetics at UBC, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Translational Psychiatric Genomics and is executive director of the BC Provincial Health Services Authority’s Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute. Jehannine is a genetic counselor by clinical training and her research work involves studying the impact of genetic counseling for people with psychiatric disorders and their families.

She founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counseling service that has won an award for its impact on patient outcomes, and is being used as a model for other similar initiatives that are being started around the world. She is the first genetic counselor to become a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada, or a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.