Whitney Espinel is a board-certified genetic counselor with a master’s degree in human genetics and genetic counseling from Emory University and a bachelors and master's degree from Brigham Young University in psychology. She joined Huntsman Cancer Institute in 2016. She specializes in assessing genetic risk factors for breast and ovarian cancer in individuals and families. She currently works in Huntsman Cancer Institute's High Risk Breast Cancer Clinic where she helps follow women with genetic mutations including BRCA1/2, ATM, CHEK2, PALB2. She also works on multiple research projects aimed at expanding genetic risk assessment into new populations as well as comparing somatic and germline test results in oncology patients.
Selected Publications
Journal Article
- Kaphingst KA, Kohlmann W, Chambers RL, Goodman MS, Bradshaw R, Chan PA, Chavez-Yenter D, Colonna SV, Espinel WF, Everett JN, Gammon A, Goldberg ER, Gonzalez J, Hagerty KJ, Hess R, Kehoe K, Kessler C, Kimball KE, Loomis S, Martinez TR, Monahan R, Schiffman JD, Temares D, Tobik K, Wetter DW, Mann DM, Kawamoto K, Del Fiol G, Buys SS, Ginsburg O, BRIDGE research team (2021). Comparing models of delivery for cancer genetics services among patients receiving primary care who meet criteria for genetic evaluation in two healthcare systems: BRIDGE randomized controlled trial. BMC Health Serv Res, 21(1), 542.
- Sutherland N, Espinel W, Grotzke M, Colonna S (2020). Unanswered Questions: Hereditary breast and gynecological cancer risk assessment in transgender adolescents and young adults. J Genet Couns, 29(4), 625-633.
- Greenberg S, Buys SS, Edwards SL, Espinel W, Fraser A, Gammon A, Hafen B, Herget KA, Kohlmann W, Roundy C, Sweeney C (2019). Population prevalence of individuals meeting criteria for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer testing. Cancer Med, 8(15), 6789-6798.
- Espinel W, Charen K, Huddleston L, Visootsak J, Sherman S (2015). Improving Health Education for Women Who Carry an FMR1 Premutation. J Genet Couns, 25(2), 228-38.
- Allen EG, Grus WE, Narayan S, Espinel W, Sherman SL (2014). Approaches to identify genetic variants that influence the risk for onset of fragile X-associated primary ovarian insufficiency (FXPOI): a preliminary study. Front Genet, 5, 260.