Jeana DaRe, PhD, FACMG is the Vice President of Laboratory Medicine at Progenity. She is responsible for leading the Laboratory Director team, overseeing the Medical Affairs team, and bringing clinical molecular genetics expertise to Progenity’s new product development and commercialization pipeline. She joined the company in 2014 bringing with her a background in laboratory leadership, next-generation sequencing, variant interpretation, and commercialization of genetic tests.

Dr. DaRe was previously Laboratory Director at Transgenomic, where she helped bring one of the first large next-generation sequencing panels to the clinical laboratory industry. Dr. DaRe obtained certification by the American Board of Medical Genetics in Clinical Molecular Genetics, after completing her clinical training through a joint program located at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Signature Genomics Laboratories in Spokane, WA. She earned her doctoral degree in Genetics from Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, OH.

John Tazelaar, MD is Senior Medical Director at Progenity. Dr. Tazelaar participates in data evaluation, report sign-out, approval of validations of new assays, and ensuring that the lab meets CLIA regulations and CAP guidelines. He has worked for several molecular diagnostic companies in areas including full gene sequencing of tumor predisposition genes, molecular tumor analysis, and pharmacogenetics.

Dr. Tazelaar was previously Associate Director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, providing histologic analysis for Institute members. He completed a fellowship in molecular genetic pathology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003, and he is board certified in clinical pathology and molecular genetic pathology through the American Board of Pathology. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1991, followed by an AP/CP residency at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Tazelaar earned his undergraduate degree in biology at SUNY Binghamton in 1986, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

Thomas Monroe, PhD is Senior Laboratory Director at Progenity. He joined the organization in 2015 and brings his experience and expertise in NIPT analysis to support Progenity’s launch and continuing advancements in Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT).

Prior to joining the Progenity team, Dr. Monroe spent over 20 years in the molecular diagnostics arena. He was Laboratory Director for Sequenom in North Carolina where he spent over three years working with the developers of the first commercially available NIPT assay. He established the first clinical molecular laboratory in Western Michigan at the former Butterworth Hospital (currently part of the Spectrum Health System). Earlier in his career, Dr. Monroe was very active in clinical research, at the Upjohn Company and serving for over a decade as the Director of the Ferguson Digestive Disease Institutes. Dr. Monroe received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1984 from The Pennsylvania State University, a PhD in Microbiology from Colorado State University conferred in 1990 and currently holds New York State Certificates of Qualification in Genetic Testing and Immunohematology.

Carol Holland, PhD, MS is Senior Laboratory Director and Director of Laboratory Quality Control at Progenity. In addition to normal laboratory director responsibilities, Dr. Holland is also responsible for all laboratory-based quality control including pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical metrics, as well as ensuring the laboratory is compliant and ready for regulatory inspections. She joined Progenity in 2011 and has been in Laboratory Medicine for 40+ years.

Dr. Holland previously held positions in Clinical Medicine as the Scientific Director, Infectious Disease Research Laboratory at Henry Ford Health Systems and as the Technical Director in the Molecular Pathology Laboratory at Beaumont Health Systems. Dr. Holland also worked for several years in the Marketing department at Beckman Coulter as a Manager in the Molecular Diagnostics Division where she was responsible for overseeing the development of molecular assays. Dr. Holland obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology from Wayne State University followed by a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Microbiology/Molecular Biology/Infectious Disease at Henry Ford Health Systems. She also did additional training as a visiting scientist at Utrecht University Hospital in the Netherlands, and at the Navy Medical Research Center in Silver Springs, MD. She also holds BA and MS degrees in Biology from Oakland University.

Lisa McDaniel, PhD is Senior Laboratory Director at Progenity, Inc. Her current responsibilities include analysis and reporting of patient results, development of processes to ensure accurate results and improve test performance and working with R&D to introduce and validate new assays. She has more than 30 years of experience in molecular genetics and is board certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics.

Dr. McDaniel was previously Laboratory Director at Signature Genomic Laboratories, working with constitutional microarrays, developing targeted cancer microarrays, as well as molecular assays. Dr. McDaniel also worked at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas where she was a lecturer and an assistant professor working on mapping human disease genes and mouse models for xeroderma pigmentosum, Cockayne syndrome, Roberts syndrome, Bloom syndrome and other disorders. Dr. McDaniel holds a bachelor’s degree and a PhD in Genetics from the University of California at Davis. She completed a fellowship at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland at Baltimore Medical Center.

Priscilla Fernandes, PhD is Associate Laboratory Director at Progenity. Her primary responsibility is the daily review of patient data and report sign-out. She also contributes to research for new product development and post-launch product quality monitoring.

Dr. Fernandes was previously laboratory director with Myriad Genetic Laboratories, where she gained expertise in hereditary cancer genetic testing as well as classification and reclassification of genetic variants. She earned her doctoral degree in Molecular and Medical Genetics from Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Dr. Fernandes is board certified by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ABMGG) and is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) following her post-doctoral clinical training at Baylor College of Medicine.