Katherine Stueland is President and CEO of GeneDx (Nasdaq: WGS), a $3 billion public company that diagnoses more children with genetic disease than any lab in the world. Since taking over in 2021, she has brought the company to profitability and launched new tests that are changing how rare disease is diagnosed. On the day of this recording, she was named a 2026 Fierce 50 honoree for Health Equity.
In this episode of Inspiring Women, Katherine talks with host Laurie McGraw about:
- Why it takes an average of 5 years to diagnose a child with a genetic disease, and how GeneDx now delivers a fully interpreted genome in 48 hours
- GeneDx's origin story at the NIH under founder Dr. Sherri Bale, whose Gaithersburg, Maryland lab took the hardest-to-diagnose cases
- How the 2013 Supreme Court ruling on gene patents opened the genomics industry
- Making exome and genome testing easier for non-geneticists to order and understand, including pediatricians, cardiologists, and parents
- Why "rare disease" is a misnomer when it affects 1 in 10 Americans, half of them children
- Why 95% of genetic diagnoses have no FDA-approved therapy, and how more data can change that
- Careful listening as a CEO skill, and balancing quick decisions with contemplation
- Using gut and lived experience alongside data and AI to make big decisions
Katherine previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at Invitae before joining GeneDx.
Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw.
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