Katherine Stueland spent years encouraging other women to go for the opportunity. When she was asked to consider the CEO role herself, she had to take her own advice.

The President and CEO of GeneDx tells Andrea L. Johnston what changed when she went from trusted number two to the person making the final call. An English major with a background in communications and leading patient-centric businesses, Katherine said yes to the conversation before she felt ready for the job. She had spent years supporting other CEOs. Becoming one required a different kind of trust in herself.

Her commitment to patient advocacy began at 11, when two cousins were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and she organized a fundraiser for research. That purpose followed her through a career in healthcare and into GeneDx, a genomics company that emerged from the National Institutes of Health. On her first visit to its offices, handwritten thank-you letters from parents made the work personal. Each letter represented a family that had finally found an answer.

Leading that work meant building a business that could sustain it. Katherine describes the decisions that come with rapid growth: when to invest in infrastructure, how to recognize that a process no longer serves the team, and why each year may require a different approach to leadership. She stresses the importance of financial acumen in business, noting that achieving profitability allows the company to reinvest in technology and ultimately serve more patients.

That matters to families still searching for a rare disease diagnosis. Katherine explains what earlier testing and newborn genomic screening could change, and why a diagnosis can give a family direction even when an approved therapy does not yet exist.

For women considering a bigger role or guiding a business through change, her advice comes from experience: take the step forward, speak up and believe in yourself. You do not have to feel completely ready to begin.