Nancy James Adams ’60, ’77 MS has worked longer as a genetic counselor than anyone else in this state. That’s because this UNC Greensboro alumna was the very first.
Dr. Bruce Eberhart, then the Department Head of Biology, and Dr. Laura Anderton advised Adams on her master’s degree in genetic counseling during the 1970s. It was a very new field; no colleges in the Southeast offered the major.
Adams said, “They assisted me in creating my own program of study.”
The courses Adams had available to her at UNCG gave her the tools necessary to suceed in her academic pursuits, but she needed to gain clinical experience. Dr. Neil Kirkman, then head of the Genetics and Metabolism Divison at NC Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, agreed to mentor her in clinical rotations.