Nothing Human is Foreign to Me
paraphrasing Terence
scientist bent towards language and the environment
With 'nothing human being foreign,’ Charleen's scientific interests are broad and include a range of fields and methodologies (e.g., bioinformatics, linguistics, epidemiology, ethics, genetics). She's both a coder (R and Linux) and a writer. Her dissertation on DNA methylation in shift workers included an ethical argument to protect those who work at night. She subsequently trained in Mendelian randomization, which uses genetics to understand the environment. She is currently focused on ribosomal proteins and has on-going collaborations with colleagues in psychology.
Some history: After obtaining a master’s degree in applied linguistics (using language to solve social problems), she served as an interfaith chaplain at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in 2003 (she’s culturally Jewish and an atheist). The suffering of her patients changed the direction of her life. Serving as the chaplain for oncology and neonatal intensive-care units moved her into genetics and prevention science in her 30s. But the transition took time. She practiced meditation for three years at San Francisco Zen Center — as a monastic.
In 2007, she learned medical genetics and public health on the job at the State of Washington’s Newborn Screening Program, a position she landed due to curiosity, a deep desire to contribute meaningfully and empirically to society, and training in linguistics. Her role was in risk-communication for life-threatening genetic conditions: she called doctors and explained genetic results for rare metabolic disorders.
Charleen has since gained scientific expertise at some of the best public-health departments in the world: Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, University of Washington’s Public-Health Genetics Institute, University of Bristol’s Integrative Epidemiology Unit, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Likewise, she has worked at three world-renowned cancer research and treatment centers: the National Cancer Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the City of Hope National Medical Center.
She uses her training in linguistics to communicate with the public. Here are some examples:
As of November 2020, she has 30 publications, including eight essays for the public, four collaborative statistical projects, and 17 first-author scientific manuscripts.
Some history: After obtaining a master’s degree in applied linguistics (using language to solve social problems), she served as an interfaith chaplain at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in 2003 (she’s culturally Jewish and an atheist). The suffering of her patients changed the direction of her life. Serving as the chaplain for oncology and neonatal intensive-care units moved her into genetics and prevention science in her 30s. But the transition took time. She practiced meditation for three years at San Francisco Zen Center — as a monastic.
In 2007, she learned medical genetics and public health on the job at the State of Washington’s Newborn Screening Program, a position she landed due to curiosity, a deep desire to contribute meaningfully and empirically to society, and training in linguistics. Her role was in risk-communication for life-threatening genetic conditions: she called doctors and explained genetic results for rare metabolic disorders.
Charleen has since gained scientific expertise at some of the best public-health departments in the world: Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, University of Washington’s Public-Health Genetics Institute, University of Bristol’s Integrative Epidemiology Unit, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Likewise, she has worked at three world-renowned cancer research and treatment centers: the National Cancer Institute, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the City of Hope National Medical Center.
She uses her training in linguistics to communicate with the public. Here are some examples:
- An ethics soundbite from her dissertation on circadian biology made it into Nature.
- She was phone-interviewed and quoted by Lesley McClurg of National Public Radio (NPR) for her essay against using forensic genetics for racial profiling at the US-Mexico border.
- She wrote a letter to the Linguistic Society of America, which was quoted in the Atlantic.
- After Trump refused to concede the 2020 presidential election and made false claims of widespread voting fraud against him, she performed a statistical analysis of the US voter-count data. She found no evidence of fraud. She was phone-interviewed by a journalist at FactCheck.org (a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center) about this and quoted in their subsequent write-up.
As of November 2020, she has 30 publications, including eight essays for the public, four collaborative statistical projects, and 17 first-author scientific manuscripts.
CV
