Who We Are

Dave Jacob has been a successful businessman, pilot and professional bowler over his varied career. Jacob spent 18 years at EDS, a worldwide systems integration public company, in technical development, management and sales in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors. He was the CEO of Data Solutions Corporation, a subsidiary of Data General, before founding JSI in 1993 and Davalen, LLC in 2006. He continues as a managing partner. Earlier in his career, Dave entered the Naval Flight program and served as the maintenance officer at the US Navy Test Pilot school before his honorable discharge in 1972. Jacob earned his bachelors degree in Applied Math and Physics from Florida State University. In addition, Jacob has served on the board of various charities in the past and is now active at Home Away Boston, the Social Impact Center in Boston and the Presbyterian Church in Sudbury. He currently lives in Sudbury, MA with his wife Kathy and dotes on his five grandsons and one granddaughter.

Dawn Jacob Laney, MS, CGC, CCRC, is a genetic counselor, assistant professor, and program leader at Emory University in the Department of Human Genetics, Laney received her master’s degree in medical genetics from the Sarah Lawrence College in 1999. She received her certification from the American Board of Genetic Counseling in 2002. Since joining the Emory Division of Medical Genetics in 2002, Laney has been involved in follow-up of abnormal metabolic newborn screening for the state of Georgia, development and management of a genetic infusion center, and lysosomal storage disease clinical care and research. She is currently the program leader for the Emory Lysosomal Storage disease center. She serves on the Emory biomedical IRB committee and is a board member of the Southeastern Regional Genetics Group. Laney is the primary instructor/coordinator for the Developmental Biology and Human Malformation course at Emory University. Most recently she was awarded an NORD Rare Impact Honoree and has published six books.

Robert J. Hopkin, MD, is an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center within the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Hopkin graduated from the University of Nevada Medical School. He completed residency and chief residency in pediatrics at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Maricopa Medical Center Combined Residency Program. His training in medical genetics was completed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The majority of Dr. Hopkin’s time is spent in caring for patients with genetic disorders. He participates in clinics from Fetal Care to Adult Genetics. He is also actively involved in education of health care providers regarding the application of genetics for patient care. Dr Hopkin has participated in a number of clinical trials and is a member of American College of Medical Genetics Committee on Therapeutics. He has participated in natural history studies on Fabry disease, Pompe disease, velocardiofacial syndrome, Pierre Robin sequence, neurofibromatosis type I, and several other genetic conditions. The unifying principle in his research interests is application of scientific knowledge to improve outcomes for patients afflicted with genetic disorders.

Joan Vignovich, MS, CGC, LGC is a licensed and certified genetic counselor with Integrated Genetics in Atlanta, GA. Joanie received her undergraduate training at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Psychology. She completed her graduate training in Genetic Counseling at the University of Pittsburgh where she received a Master of Science degree from the Graduate School of Public Health. She became board certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling and is currently licensed in the state of Ohio.

Earlier in her career, Joanie worked for 5 years as a prenatal genetic counselor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her primary interests were in prenatal genetic counseling and reproductive genetics where she worked closely with the reproductive endocrinologists, who specialized in assisted reproductive techniques and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Following her time at Penn, Joanie moved to Atlanta, GA where she worked as a prenatal genetic counselor for Emory and currently with Integrated Genetics(IG), a subsidiary of Esoterix Genetics Laboratories. Joanie still has an interest in both prenatal and pre-conceptional genetics and egg donor screening and was an integral part of creating the telegenetics program that is currently in use at IG. Joanie has always strived to provide the best care possible to her patients and knows that with the advances in genetic testing and research, patient’s with genetic disorders will benefit greatly now and in the future.

Joanie currently lives in GA and enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis and traveling.

Robert Harding is a certified public accountant with Brockman, Drinkard and Pennington, PC., (BDP) in Lynchburg Virginia. Robert graduated with a degree in accounting from Lynchburg College where he was a sprinter on the Lynchburg College track and field team. He continued with his passion for the sport as a national level sprinter in master’s track and field for many years after graduation. He remains connected with the sport as a certified track official for a number of Virginia Colleges and high schools. Robert began his career with United Virginia Bank where he was an Assistant Vice President in the internal audit department. He also worked for 14 years with First Colony Life Insurance company/GE Financial Assurance as a financial analyst for one of the company’s major product lines. Before coming on board with BDP he oversaw the GAAP reporting unit for Shenandoah Life Insurance Company. He currently lives in Forest, VA with his wife Cindy with his three children all living in the area.

Ruth O’Keefe, is the Director of Marketing and Business Development at Rokkit Marketing, a division of Davalen, LLC. She established the new division in 2014 focusing on providing valuable digital marketing resources to small and medium sized businesses and charities. Rokkit specializes in web and graphic design and strategy, as well as branding, online advertising, search engine optimization and social marketing. Prior to beginning the new division, Ruth led Davalen to success as their Director of Social Marketing and Brand Communications from 2007 – 2014 establishing a recognizable brand for the IBM Premier Business Partner.