Summer 2025 Updates from SCGC Board of Directors

Happy Pride Month from SCGC!

We are committed to supporting our colleagues and patients in the LGBTQ+ community and continue to strive for better support and access for all. Please see our statement and list of resources here. 

Presidential Update:

Announcing Recruitment for the Nominating Committee for the 2026-2027 SCGC Board of Directors

Here’s to the start of Summer 2025! While the weather is warming up, so is your Board of Directors. Did you know summer is when we begin planning to elect next year’s board members?

As Past-President, it is my job to form a committee to solicit nominations for November’s election of a new President-Elect (for a 3-year term), and for the DEI and Education Chairs (for 2-year terms). Joining me from the Board will be one or both of our Membership Chairs, Nicole Choy and Jamie Phan.

We need 2 or 3 members of our SCGC community to join the board members of the Nominating Committee in a quest to solicit and review nominations for the board, interview applicants, and create the absolute best slate for the November election. Being a committee member is a great way to learn more about SCGC and help to shape its future.

The committee will have its first meeting in July to outline the process before we announce that nominations are open. In September/October, we will review the nominations, interview the candidates, and form a slate. The election will be in November and close before Thanksgiving. Three to four meetings between July and October will be needed.

If you are interested or have questions, please contact Joan Oliver at info@socalgc.org.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Joan

Upcoming Events:

• Upcoming Webinars

  • Raising awareness and education of genetic testing and counseling through fotonovelas among Latina women at risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer 

    • Date: Monday, July 8, 2025, 12-1 PM, PST

    • Speaker: Clara Barajas

  • Cardiogenetics

    • Date: Friday, August 29, 2025, 12-1 PM, PST

    • Speaker: Judy Fan

  • Fall: Genetic Counseling Supervision workshop- stay tuned

• Upcoming Conference

  • Joint Northern California Coalition of Genetic Counselors x Southern California Genetic Counselors Conference

    
    

Registration is open! Join your colleagues at the Cliffs Hotel and Spa in Pismo Beach for a joint education conference September 18-19. 

Registration and event details can be found here.

• Upcoming Fundraisers: 

• The Scholarship Committee will be fundraising throughout the month of August to raise funds to help prospective genetic counseling students gain access to education. Please come out and support your community at an event near you!

• Tentative Dates and Locations:

  • Los Angeles - Happy Hour

    • Date: August 14th

    • Location: TBD

    • Time: 6-8 PM

  • Orange County - Family Fun Run/Walk 

    • Date: August 17th

    • Location: OC Great Park

    • Time: 9am-12pm 

  • Inland Empire - Details to be announced soon

  • San Diego - Details to be announced soon

• Fundraiser Volunteers- if you are interested in helping out with fundraising events please contact info@socalgc.org

Past Events:

If you missed out on our past events, no worries! Here is a brief recap:

ACMG Happy Hour at Native Son LA

SCGC Hikes Across SoCal: Griffith Park and Quail Hill Loop Trail

Thank you everyone who came out! Stay tuned for more fun ways to get involved, and hope to see you all next time

Call for Volunteers:

Membership Committee is seeking volunteers in the Inland Empire and San Diego areas to assist in hosting local happy hours and creative social events throughout the year! If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to info@socalgc.org

DEI Newsletter: 

Welcome to the DEI corner of our quarterly blog! We are excited to share resources, latest articles, and latest posters/platforms/achievements by our SCGC members. Please reach out to info@socalgc.org if you would like to share any of these with us for our next post (students as well!)

Resources:

NSGC Speaker Guide - Developed by the NSGC Education Committee, this handbook provides recommendations for speakers on how to make presentations and other educational activities effective, inclusive and accessible for all learners.

GCPSN - Genetic Counseling Prospective Student Network is a group of prospective genetic counseling students working to create a supportive and informative network for other prospective students, including hosting community outreach efforts alongside the SCGC outreach chairs.

Trending Publications:

Schelhaas and Shuman (2025). It’s Time to Start Trusting Our Disabled Genetic Counselors. Perspectives. 2.28.2025 https://perspectives.nsgc.org/Article/its-time-to-start-trusting-our-disabled-genetic-counselors 

• Summary: Two genetic counselors with rare genetic conditions ask us to reflect on why we view the disabled body so differently and to trust that Disabled genetic counselors are able to make choices about their own career paths based on their personal and professional interests and experiences, and ask ourselves what we can do to address the ingrained ableist biases in our graduate program and/or workplace.

Schechner, J. et al. (2025) Transgender and gender diverse patients' experiences with pregnancy-related genetics discussions: A qualitative study. Journal of Genetic Counseling,  https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.2018

• Summary: Study investigating TGD individuals' experiences with pregnancy-related genetic discussions, focusing on the challenges they face and strategies for improving care.

“The Fridge” 

We would like to celebrate the accomplishments of our members and highlight the work they have done this past year to elevate the field of genetic counseling in Southern California:

Emmeline Chang, MS, CGC

BRCA Symposium

Poster: Navigating CHECK2 Variants with Discrepant

Classifications

Jacob Comeaux, MS, CGC

BRCA Symposium

Poster: Adherence to Breast Cancer Screening Recommendations for Women with Pathogenic or Likely Pathogenic Variants in Moderate-Risk Genes or Empirically Increased Breast Cancer Risk

Nathan Hassel, MS, CGC and Jamie Phan, MS, CGC

ACMG

Poster: Predictive Accuracy of Liquid Biopsy for Comprehensive Genomic Profiling of Solid Tumors

Do you and/or your colleague(s) have an accomplishment that deserves to be celebrated? We want to hear from you! Submit your accomplishments so we can put it on “The Fridge”! Selected submissions will be featured in the next quarterly SCGC blog post.

Send us your reason to celebrate here!