Genome Canada named Paul-Émile Cloutier as vice president of advocacy and external relations. In the role, Cloutier will manage government and stakeholder relations, communications, events and sponsorships, and activities in the genomics and society section.
Cloutier has worked as a senior executive in the nonprofit and private sectors, including spending 11 years at the Canadian Medical Association as CEO, secretary general, and assistant secretary general. He also was a senior executive in government relations at VIA Rail Canada, a senior policy advisor for several federal ministers, and chief of staff to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs of Ontario.
The American Society of Human Genetics and the National Human Genome Research Institute have named Katherine Blizinsky the newest ASHG/NHGRI Genetics and Public Policy Fellow, a 16-month appointment.
Blizinsky is a neuroscientist at Northwestern University. She has been studying varying topics in the areas of psychiatric neurogenetics and genomics, gene-environment coevolution of psychiatric susceptibility, and imaging genetics of neurological and psychiatric conditions. She received the Sage Bionetworks Young Investigator Award in 2012 and co-founded Science Policy Initiative Northwestern, an organization that fosters science policy dialogue in the university community through panel discussions, lectures, and interactive debates.