Heather Hampel completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Genetics at the Ohio State University in 1993. She attained her Master’s degree in Human Genetics from Sarah Lawrence College in 1995. She received certification from the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 1996. She worked as a cancer genetic counselor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before moving to The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC) from 1997 to 2022.

Previously, Heather was a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the Division of Human Genetics. She was also the Associate Director of Biospecimen Research for the OSUCCC. She was the study coordinator for the Columbus area Lynch syndrome study which determined the frequency of Lynch syndrome among newly diagnosed patients with these cancers. This study culminated in first author publications in the New England Journal of Medicine in May of 2005, Cancer Research in August of 2006, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology in December of 2008. She was also the PI of the Ohio Colorectal Cancer Prevention Initiative which is screening colorectal cancer patients from 50 hospitals throughout the state for hereditary cancer syndromes. The first major publication from that study showing that 16% of early onset colorectal cancers are hereditary was published in 2017 in JAMA Oncology. Heather Hampel was the Region IV Representative on the Board of Directors of the National Society of Genetic Counselors in 2003-4. She was on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Genetic Counseling from 2006 - 2011, serving as President in 2009 and 2010. She was elected to the Steering Committee member of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable in 2016. She has been on the Council of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer since 2016 and served as President in 2018.

Presently, Heather serves as the Associate Director of the Division of Clinical Cancer Genomics at the Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope, in Duarte, California. She is also a Professor in the Deparment of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics at City of Hope. 

Dr. Weiss is an Associate Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) and Director of the UW Gastrointestinal Genetics Clinic. She has a Master’s degree in Population Health Sciences from UWSMPH and completed post-doctoral training in health services research and healthcare quality improvement. Her clinical and research program focuses on improving colorectal cancer screening for both average-risk and high-risk populations. She has received funding from the American Cancer Society and NIH to evaluate healthcare system interventions to increase colorectal cancer screening and is currently funded by the Wisconsin Partnership Program to identify successful screening strategies in both rural and urban settings. At the state-level, Dr. Weiss has served as the physician lead for the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality Colorectal Cancer Screening Improvement Team for the past eight years with the goal of screening 80% of eligible individuals across Wisconsin. Nationally, she is the UW Health liaison to the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable, serves on multiple guideline committees for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (Vice Chair of the Genetic/Familial High-Risk Assessment: Colorectal Guideline Committee, Member of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Guideline Committee), and the American Gastroenterological Association. She is excited to support any work on improving colorectal cancer screening for average-risk and high-risk individuals.