38 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
“ They find him,” Bhide said.
“ We’ ve hired two outstanding genetic counselors, and have good leads on several more,” said Ledbetter, who has an ambitious goal of hiring 30 genetic counselor by 2030.“ I hired over 25 genetic counselors at Geisinger Health in a small, central Pennsylvania town of 5,000 people. Imagine what we can do in Tallahassee and North Florida.”
Genetic counselors Saanchi Shah, Ph. D., M. S., CCG and Beth Joirle, M. S., CCG, arrived at IPRD from UCLA and Orlando, respectively, and will also serve as assistant professors in the Clinical Sciences department. They have accompanied Ledbetter and IPRD consultant Andy Faucett, M. S., CCG, to recent conferences, continuing the institute’ s recruiting efforts.
Faucett worked alongside Ledbetter at both Geisinger Health and Emory.
The team has been to the American Society of Human Genetics meeting in Boston and to a Seattle meeting of the National Society of Genetic Counselors,“ where there is a clear buzz about genomics in Florida,” Ledbetter said.“ Most people are not sure exactly what is happening, but most have heard there’ s something big.
“ When I tell them Rep. Anderson’ s vision, and the plans for Sunshine Genetics, they all want to know how to convince their states to follow suit.”
The IPRD-Clinical Sciences connection also includes Janelle Stanton, Ph. D., who arrived from University of Florida College of Medicine— Jacksonville in a post-doctoral role with IPRD and now holds a research faculty position within the department. In January, Lauren Harper, Ph. D., will move from the Psychology Department in the College of Arts & Sciences to the College of Medicine, where she will serve as a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in Clinical Sciences. Harper earned her master’ s and doctorate degrees from FSU and has also completed a post-doctoral Pediatric Neuropsychology Fellowship at Johns Hopkins All Children’ s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The dual assignments with IPRD and College of Medicine academic departments are by design.“ We are recruiting people where they see patients for 40- 60 % of the time,” Bhide said.“ Many of these specialists want to be involved in research. So, whatever that percentage would be, a significant component of their time is going to be clinical work, research, and teaching, as needed. It helps with finding salary support, and there’ s grant funding that helps a lot.”
Bhide said this model helps avoid burnout, which is not uncommon when highly skilled clinicians relocate to smaller towns, adding that Tallahassee had just one genetic counselor before the recent hiring of Shah and Joirle. He believes this model could also work in a collaborative effort with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare.
“ Credit to David [ Ledbetter ], because of him, we are advertising for people that spend only 50 % of their time in the clinic,” Bhide added.
Nora Pepper, M. D., a 2010 College of Medicine graduate, will lead IPRD’ s Pediatric Health Center. She came to FSU from TMH, where she served as a pediatric hospitalist, caring for both sick children and healthy newborns.
“ I loved my team. I loved the nurses. I loved everything about it,” said Pepper, who joined the Clinical Sciences Department as an assistant professor in September 2024. That move came just a few months after then-department chair Jonathan Applebaum, M. D., and current interim-chair Michael Sweeney, M. D., planted the seed.
“ I always loved the idea of coming back to FSU,” said Pepper, who remains active at TMH, serving as chair of the hospital’ s Medical Executive Committee and also as a trustee on the hospital’ s board.“ So, we took the leap.”
An invitation from Bhide to sit in on Rare Disease Day, and later to attend IPRD meetings, slowly drew her in. When Bhide explained that IPRD would include a fully operating pediatric clinic, her interest was piqued.