Tara Schmidlen | Penn State College of Health and Human Development

Tara is a Genetic Counselor and Clinical Investigator with the Geisinger Health System. Her main role as a genetic counselor is to help individuals understand, adapt to, and act on genetic risk information for disease. Working out of the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, Tara uses her patients' test results to direct them to both the proper treatment specialist as well as peer groups with similar diagnoses.

Job Description

Tara helps individuals understand, act on, and adapt to genetic risk information for disease, and assists patients with strong family cases of cancer. Learn more...

Loves & Challenges

From a science standpoint, Tara enjoys how the field of genetic counseling is forward thinking and constantly evolving. On the psychological side, with this comes the challenge of conveying information in the right sequence to patients.

How to Prepare

Tara shares how a Biobehavioral Health and Psychology degree prepared her for a career in genetic counseling, and who she recommends students should reach out to if they are considering this career path.

Starting a New Job

The one thing every new employee should do when starting a new position, and its many benefits later on down the road.

Mentorship

Why identifying a problem is key when approaching a mentor, and the power mentoring can have both ways.

Penn State Experience

It was not until her elective class when Tara realized she could combine her passion for science and psychology into a career.