Jill Waalen

Jill Waalen joined the Translational Institute at Scripps Research in November 2010 as a biostatistician. She plans to continue her research at Scripps Research while providing biostatistics expertise to investigators at the Translational Institute.

She is the author or co-author of over 45 journal articles, focusing on the genetic epidemiology of hematologic diseases, including the 2010 report titled “More pieces to the iron chelation puzzle,” for Translational Research. In addition to serving on the editorial board of that journal, she is the deputy editor of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and Associate Director of the U.C. San Diego/San Diego State University (SDSU) General Preventive Medicine Residency. She also is a lecturer in SDSU’s Graduate School of Public Health.

Before applying for medical school at the University of Wisconsin, from which she received her medical degree in 1997, she was a science and medical writer, first at the National Cancer Institute and then at the Medical College of Wisconsin. A graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz’s science communication program, she has continued to write about science. Examples include her 2002 article, “Boosting brain repair,” for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bulletin and “Gleevec’s glory days,” in 2001, also for the HHMI newsletter.

Elected as a Diplomat of the American Board of Preventive Medicine in 2001, Jill was awarded a bachelor's degree in Biology and History at Concordia College in Minnesota in 1984 and a master's degree in Physiology at the University of Wisconsin in 1989. In 2001, she received a Master's in Public Health from San Diego State University.