Skip to main content

Lori
H.
Erby
,
PhD

Associate Professor
- Adjunct

Contact Info

10 Center Drive, Building 10, Room 8D54A
Bethesda
Maryland
20892
US        
301-451-3455

Research Interests

genetic counseling; genetics; psychosocial issues in genetics; patient-provider communication;communication; health literacy
Experiences & Accomplishments
Education
PhD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2006
MSc
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
2001
Overview
I currently serve as the Director of the Johns Hopkins/National Institutes of Health Genetic Counseling Training Program. While I am employed at the National Human Genome Research Institute, I maintain close collaborations with colleagues at Johns Hopkins and teach within the training program.

My research focuses on communication within the genetics/genomics context. Particularly, I am interested in providing evidence to inform who needs what kind of communication at what point in time, delivered by what kind of of media. I ask questions related to how variation in the process of communication in genetic counseling links to outcomes for clients. I have a specific interest in understanding how to most appropriately tailor communication to populations with limited literacy. I have worked with Debra Roter on the largest study of routine genetic counseling communication done to date. I have emerging interests in the outcomes of genomics communication beyond the interpersonal clinical interaction as well as an interest in translating evidence of communication best practices into the healthcare training environment.
Honors & Awards
Delta Omega Honor Society, 2006
Select Publications
Selected publications
  • Erby LH, Wisniewski T, Lewis K, Hernandez C, Biesecker L, Biesecker BB (2021) Adaptation of the working alliance inventory for the assessment of the therapeutic alliance in genetic counseling. Journal of Genetic Counseling. PMID: 33554391
  • Schaa KL, Roter DL, Biesecker BB, Cooper LA, and Erby LH (2015) Genetic counselors’ implicit racial attitudes and their relationship to communication. Health Psychology 34: 111-9. PMID: 25622081
  • Erby LH, Roter D, Larson S, Cho J (2008) The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Genetics (REAL-G): A means to assess literacy deficits in the context of genetics. American Journal of Medical Genetics 146A:174-181. PMID:18076116
  • Fiallos K, Owczarzak J, Bodurtha J, Beatriz Margarit S, Erby L (2019) Where culture meets genetics: Exploring Latina immigrants' lay beliefs of disease inheritance. Social Science and Medicine. PMID: 30853189 PMCID: PMC7505090
  • Neustadt A, Owczarzak JO, Mu W, Cohen J, Erby L (2020) Adult patients with undiagnosed conditions and their responses to unresolved uncertainty from exome sequencing. Journal of Genetic Counseling 29(6): 992-1003. PMID: 32030847