Melanie W. Hardy, MS, CGC; Lauren Ryan, MS, CGC
With incredible efforts from our professional community, more states have enacted licensure laws for genetic counselors around the country. While this helps support our efforts to elevate the status of our profession, it also impacts greater numbers of genetic counselors each year as we work within the requirements of each state to become licensed. This can be a difficult process, especially if you happen to be a genetic counselor who works in multiple states.
It’s very important to review the available information before you embark on your licensure journey.
A group of genetic counselors who each maintain multiple state licenses recognized the growing need for resources. As a result, they formed the Multi-State Licensure (MSL) Workgroup.* This group has spent many months developing and revising a set of resources for use by genetic counselors who plan to apply for, verify, or renew a license. The resources can be found on the NSGC website under Multi-State Licensure Application Resources.
It’s very important to review the available information before you embark on your licensure journey. Applying for multiple state licenses is not as straightforward as you may think! In the resources, you will find:
- An Introduction to the resources and a Quick Start Guide to help people who need to apply for one or multiple licenses.
- Individual State Application Checklists, which contain links to the state’s webpage, application information, direct contact information, and other helpful considerations.
- Verification Instructions to help you navigate the process of having one state provide proof of your good standing as you apply for licensure in another state.
- Renewal Resources to help you plan for renewals, as each license has a different expiration period and invariably expires without vigilant upkeep.
The MSL Workgroup has a plan to update these resources on a biannual basis. To do so, we will need input from users of the resources. If you open a document or spreadsheet and notice that a link isn’t working or some information is no longer correct, please let us know. You can reach out to the NSGC Staff Liaison to the Access & Service Delivery (ASD) Committee, Jennifer Trotter, at jtrotter@nsgc.org.
Licensure can be both important and daunting. We hope you will find these resources to be helpful in your journey. If you have questions beyond the scope of the above resources, please reach out to the ASD Licensure Subcommittee.
*The ASD Licensure Subcommittee would like to give special thanks to the members of the MSL Workgroup for their hard work on these resources: Jen Eichmeyer, Diane Ahern, Kristen Rauch, Lauren Ryan, Melanie Hardy, Austin McKittrick, and Michelle Moore.
Melanie W. Hardy, MS, CGC is Assistant Director of Genetic Counseling Services for JScreen at Emory University. She also chairs the ASD Licensure Subcommittee, the Laboratory/Industry SIG, and the Leadership and Management SIG.
melanie.hardy@emory.edu
Lauren Ryan, MS, CGC is Head of Clinical Services at Color and GC Lead for the NIH All of Us Research Program’s Genetic Counseling Resource. She serves as Vice Chair for the ASD Licensure Subcommittee, as well as Chair of the Laboratory/Industry SIG’s Outreach Subcommittee, and Chair of the Leadership and Management SIG’s Resources Subcommittee.