In 2019, we celebrated the 40th year of the National Society of Genetic Counselors at the Annual Conference. There was a special timeline exhibit on the History of NSGC with collected artifacts showing growth and changes in our profession, including medical genetics discoveries, technology, and public policies. Genetic counseling history trivia questions between sessions added historical context.
This is just the start of an amazing project by NSGC to document and archive the history of our profession and our professional society. We have already compiled a list of over 550 significant events, discoveries, and legislative and policy issues that were integral to the growth of genetic counseling. Significant milestones dates and hundreds of documents and photos are being collected. An interactive online timeline available to members is planned for 2020, to create a permanent place to showcase the history of our profession with the capability for continual updates. The Late Career SIG is working to identify a professional archivist to store and preserve historical documents. This effort complements other efforts: NSGC digitalization of all past Perspectives issues and prior professional status surveys, as well as a chronological list of all prior Annual Education Conferences. The Association of Genetic Counseling Training Programs Directors (AGCPD) is compiling information on all past and current genetic counseling graduate programs.
Genetic counselors understand the value of an accurate history. As a generation of genetic counselors approach retirement, now is an important time for collecting and archiving our history. Paper copies from the pioneers in our field are soon to be cleared from offices or basements and discarded. We want to develop this historical archive for future research to complement the published papers on the history of our profession (Heimler A. 1997, Baty B. 2018).
If you have documents, photos, historical items, or other treasures that you can contribute to this archival project, please contact Ginny Corson at ginnycorson@aol.com. Information about the development of our profession is important for both new and experienced genetic counselors. Many of the issues that genetic counselors face today have also been an issue in the past. We anticipate this information will be useful for training programs, milestone events, Genetic Counselor Awareness Day events, and journal article references. Help us remember and learn about our past as we move forward into the future.
Heimler A. An Oral History of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. J Genet Couns. 1997 Sep:6(3): a315-361994.
Baty BJ. Genetic counseling: Growth of the profession and the professional. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2018 Mar:178(1):54-62.
Linda Robinson & Debra Collins Linda Robinson MS, CGC retired in 2016 after working as a genetic counselor for over 30 years. She is now a member of the Late Career SIG.
Debra Collins, MS, CGC works in the Hereditary Cancer Center at the University of Kansas Health Systems and has a special interest in von Hippel-Lindau syndrome. She was the PI for several Human Genome Project / ELSI education projects, was a recipient of a Jane Engelberg grant, is a past president of NSGC, and served on the board of directors of ABMG, ABGC, and ASHG.