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A key part of ConnectMyVariant’s growth is partnering with health care clinics that use our services in their patient care. These relationships bring more families and more variants into the community, and they raise funds so the services can remain free for everyone. K.C. Kent, our volunteer Director of Clinic Outreach since 2024, sustains and strengthens the partnerships, and we are pleased to announce that she will accelerate this work as well as develop further projects in her new role as Operations Officer.
In the position—which makes her ConnectMyVariant’s first full-time employee—K.C. will conduct research into the organization’s impact on people who join through their health care systems. She’ll use that data to show potential partners how we can benefit their patients.
As well as building up clinic relationships, K.C. will keep the organization running day to day and strategize ways for ConnectMyVariant to grow into its mission while staying sustainable. She is exploring innovative ways to serve everyone in the community and expand member support networks.
K.C. brings scientific expertise through a doctorate in cardiovascular genetics, and she brings health care perspective through a master’s degree in genetic counseling. Her background in genetic counseling has shaped her vision of what ConnectMyVariant can mean for families.
“I am first and foremost a genetic counselor,” she said, but “there is a limit to what genetic counselors can do in the clinic.” She loves that ConnectMyVariant continues to help a person after they leave a counselor’s office by extending prevention support to their relatives. “If we’re thinking more proactively instead of reactively, … we’re thinking about the whole family unit.”
K.C. also knows what it’s like to be a patient. She learned she had a prothrombin factor II gene mutation after collapsing with a pulmonary embolism in 2017. Her experiences as both patient and provider have affirmed a view of wellness that encompasses body and mind together. As a genetic counselor at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center Breast and Ovarian Cancer Prevention Clinic in Seattle, Washington, she was part of a multidisciplinary committee that served patients with nutritionists and social workers as well as oncologists. She is also a yoga trainer who runs her own wellness business, and she enjoys the outdoors with her dog Beatrice (whose name, she pointed out, means “joy-bringer.”)
“I like to live my life through the four lenses—the four C’s,” she said. “Courage, compassion, curiosity and connection. So I feel that work at ConnectMyVariant and the work that I do in my own space as a wellness practitioner all really align.” |
