The Boehm Lecture on Public Health and Healthcare is brought to you in collaboration with CBC Ideas.

One of the aspirations of the human genome project was to help find ways to not just treat, but prevent human diseases. Most common human conditions (like diabetes, cancer, mental illness, heart disease) are caused not just by genetics, but by our experiences too, and our behaviours can influence our chances of becoming ill. This year's lecture will focus on how we might use what we know from genomics and genetic counseling research to help people make behaviour changes to reduce their risk for these kinds of conditions.

Dr. Jehannine (J9) Austin is a professor and Head of the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia. J9 is a board certified genetic counsellor, and their research work involves studying how to improve access to genetics services for people who have historically been marginalized, and working to ensure that those services are safe and effective. They founded the world’s first specialist psychiatric genetic counselling service that won an award for its impact on patient outcomes, and in addition to peer-reviewed publications, has written a book, and won awards for teaching, leadership, and research. J9 is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Editor in Chief of The Journal of Genetic Counseling.