One of my favorite moments each year at our Annual Conference is listening to the presentations of the NSGC Leadership Awards. Such a fun way to learn more about different NSGC members and how they are making an impact in communities, providing excellent patient care, hearing about genetic counselors who are blazing new trails, and learning from wonderful colleagues and their stories that inspire me. 

We are at that time of year where NSGC is soliciting nominations for our seven Leadership Awards currently available: the Natalie Weissberger Paul Achievement Award, Strategic Leader, Outstanding Volunteer, Leader in Cultural Advocacy, Leader in Diversity and Inclusion, New Leader Award, and Community Engagement Award (all with an application deadline of Sunday, June 8). 

As someone who has had the honor of receiving two of these awards over my career and writing successful nomination applications for multiple awardees over the years, the awards are such a wonderful opportunity to pay it forward and recognize our colleagues for their contributions. I wanted to take this opportunity to call out select previous awardees to bring some inspiration to you, dear readers, to put a colleague’s name in the ring for an award or two this year. 

I recently rewatched the video award presentation for a dear colleague, Lauren Ryan, who previously won the Outstanding Volunteer Award in 2021. I was reminded of the amazing impact that she had in so many areas of NSGC and the different professional environments that she touched. I had the pleasure of working closely with her on an Annual Conference plenary session in 2020 where genetic counselors in "nontraditional" roles spoke about how they blazed those paths to bring our skillset into new arenas outside of direct patient care roles. After her untimely and tragic passing, we are able to continue her legacy through the Lauren Ryan Genetic Counselor Access Memorial Award, which is a beautiful testament to her tireless volunteerism in our profession. 

Strategic leaders have left irreplaceable imprints on our organization and professions with their work, and a wonderful colleague who won this award in 2011 was Cathy Wicklund. In her long-tenured career, she has worn many hats, including NSGC past-president (2005) when our federal recognition effort was first contrived, clinical care, GC genetic counselor training program director at UT Houston and Northwestern, and now is blazing trails in industry. I recently had the fortune of attending the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Precision Medicine genomics roundtable meeting where Cathy is the co-chair. This prestigious national group, which represents the major national stakeholders in genomics services, has never had a genetic counselor leader, which is yet another testament to the recognition of Cathy’s strategic prowess.  

The New Leader Award is always an exciting one to keep an eye on as we watch the future of our profession make an early impact on their careers. Someone who won this award in recent years is Austin Bland (2021). So many accomplishments in such little time are characteristic of these awardees, and Austin illustrated this with his work in the Minority Genetic Professionals Network (MGPN), JEDI work with University of Washington genetic counseling program, and tireless work with the NSGC Annual Conference Program Committee and Public Policy committees, just to name a few experiences. Through his work, he raised his voice to help lead critical diversity and inclusion work in our organization, and I had the honor to serve with Austin on the 2024 Board of Directors when he was a director-at-large to learn some of this first-hand. To observe the energy and passion that our New Leader Award recipients have never ceases to amaze me. 

The Leader in Cultural Advocacy Award recognizes those who demonstrate significant dedication to cultural advocacy to stakeholders, patients and communities outside of the genetic counseling profession. Charité Ricker, who received this award in 2019, embodies this with her long-standing cancer genetic counseling practice in underserved and multilingual communities – and she is bilingual herself! She advocates for her patients with family members in other countries towards access to care, and she has worked on a multitude of research projects in related spaces to advance our knowledge on serving these populations. As someone who works with similar populations in my local clinical practice, I admire Charité immensely for her long-standing dedication to these communities.  

I hope reflecting on just a few stories of previous NSGC Leadership Award recipients inspires many of you to do the same – take just a few minutes to submit a nomination for one of your outstanding colleagues. It does not take much of your time to show some gratitude to someone through a nomination. I can say from experience that you will feel so good if you can be the one who was able to raise your colleague’s visibility for their great work. 

Speaking of strategic leadership, I have Colleen Campbell, Immediate Past President and NSGC Strategic Award recipient (2018), recapping our very productive trip to Capitol Hill in early May for our federal advocacy day in the video below.  

 

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