Meet Our Team

Angelica Espinoza joined the Center for Genetic Medicine in August 2014 as a senior research coordinator for the pharmacogenomics project. Espinoza graduated with a bachelor's degree in behavioral science from DePaul University in 2015. Prior to joining the Center for Genetic Medicine, Espinoza worked for Northwestern Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Research Program conducting clinical trials in the Clinical Research Unit. She currently manages the follow up of patients on various research studies and is the project coordinator for the eMERGE Project at Northwestern.

Christie Hoell joined the Center for Genetic Medicine as the program manager for the eMERGE project in 2016. She received her Bachelor of Science in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2008 and her Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the Northwestern University Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling in 2011. She has been board-certified in genetic counseling by the American Board of Genetic Counseling since 2011.

Prior to joining the Center for Genetic Medicine, Hoell was a prenatal genetic counselor in the Center for Maternal and Fetal Health at NorthShore University HealthSystem. She is currently an instructor in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and a core faculty member for the Northwestern University Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling. Hoell is also actively involved with the National Society of Genetic Counselors, as well as the Genetic Task Force of Illinois. She served on the board of the Genetic Task Force of Illinois as secretary and president.

Jennifer Pacheco joined the Center for Genetic Medicine as the informatics lead for the NUgene Project in 2005. Pacheco has a bachelor’s degree in computer science with a minor in psychology, a post-baccalaureate certificate in biology, a graduate certificate in bioinformatics and in 2020 graduated with a master’s degree in biomedical informatics. Her main role within NUgene is to work with scientists, both internally and externally, to identify patient cohorts for their studies, and extract de-identified phenotypic information from the electronic health record, including leading this work for the eMERGE project. Jennifer also leads the technical operation for the NUgene Project, where she provides customized, secure database and application solutions for the biobank.

Jennifer has experience with a variety of web, data analysis and other programming languages, tools and technologies. Prior to joining the Center for Genetic Medicine, she traveled around the world as a data mining consultant for one of the leading global consulting companies based in Chicago, and also worked for a Cambridge, MA, pharmaceutical company where she developed dynamic web pages and configured scientific software.