Dr. Yan has been a Special Volunteer since July 2015, after completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Section. Dr. Yan obtained an M.S. in Genetic Counseling and Ph.D. in Human and Molecular Genetics through a dual degree program at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her training integrated clinical genetic counseling experience with research on alcohol dependence using statistical genetics methods at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. Her previous work investigated the use of genetic information in clinical risk prediction for alcohol dependence. Her postdoctoral work focused on the quantitative analysis of genetic and phenotypic data using genome-wide and systems-based approaches. She worked at the Johns Hopkins University McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine on the clinical genetics team as a practicing genetic counselor in the pediatric and adult medical genetics clinic. She is currently working at NIH in the NIAIA intramural research program and continues to collaborate with the Section on genetics of alcohol use disorder.