Spring 2025 Updates from SCGC Board of Directors

📅 Mark Your Calendar for These Exciting Upcoming Events!

Upcoming Webinars:

• Genetic Counseling and Policy

  Date:  Tuesday, April 8th 2025 

  Speaker: Jennifer Lieb, MS, CGC 

  
  

• GINA Discussion

  Date:  Wednesday, May 14th 2025 

  Speaker: Professor Anya Prince (Iowa College of Law)

  
  

• Family health beliefs and cascade genetic testing in Asian families with hereditary cancer risk: “Okay, now what?”

  Date: Friday, June 13th 2025 

  Speaker: Leena Tran, MS, CGC  

  
  

• 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 28th 2025

  Speaker: Clara Barajas, PhD

  
  

• Cardio-Genetics 

  Date: Friday, August 29th 2025 

  Speakers: Judith Fan, MS, CGC & Eugene King H. Wong, MSc, CGC

SCGC Meet-up at ACMG 2025 Wednesday, March 19th at 7pm

Attending ACMG 2025 in

Los Angeles? 🥂

Spend some time with old friends and make a few new ones at our SCGC Meet-Up on Wednesday, March 19th at 7pm. Look for our SCGC Board Members at Native Son, just an 18 minute walk from the LA Convention Center!

📍 832 South Olive Street

Los Angeles, CA 90014

SAVE THE DATE! 🤝Joint Northern California Coalition of Genetic Counselors x Southern California Genetic Counselors Conference

On September 18-19th SCGC and NCCGC are meeting at the Cliffs Hotel and Spa in Pismo Beach for a joint education conference. Please join us for this two-day event full of learning and connection.

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 2025 J.E.D.I Awareness Calendar - Created by the 2022 NSGC Membership Equity & Inclusion Implementation (E.I.I.) Subcommittee with review and input from the 2023 J.E.D.I. Stewardship Committee, this resource includes a list of holidays and cultural celebrations and awareness dates that can be referred to when scheduling meetings or events and to build inclusivity across NSGC’s membership.

Trending Publications: 

• Miller, C., et al. (2025). Genetic testing results of retinal dystrophies in a diverse population: impact of race and ethnicity. Ophthalmic Genetics, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/13816810.2024.2446549

Summary: Current genetic testing for inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs)trends toward higher diagnostic yield and identification of P/LP variants in patients identifying as White compared to other races. In order to prevent negative impacts on access to gene-targeted trials and treatments for non-White patients, wider genetic testing in diverse populations is required to create comprehensive catalogs of gene variants associated with IRDs.

• Tran, L. et al. (2025) Family health beliefs and cascade genetic testing in Asian families with hereditary cancer risk: “Okay, now what?” Journal of Genetic Counseling,  https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.1891 

  
  

  Summary: This study represents an important contribution to the literature about cascade testing among an underrepresented group. Shared family health beliefs about genetic testing may be particularly relevant for this community and these findings can inform strategies to increase cascade genetic testing in Asian families.

  
  

  Leena Tran MS, CGC will be hosting our June 13th webinar!

Calling All Volunteers! 🙋🏽‍♀️

Want to get more involved? SCGC is looking for interested volunteers to help achieve the goals of our organization. Check out our current volunteering opportunities:

• If you have participated in our monthly webinars in the past or have an interest in genetic counseling education, the Education Committee is looking for volunteers! Please reach out to socalgceducation@gmail.com for more details about available volunteer opportunities. 

• Interested in connecting with more members across SCGC? The Membership Committee is looking for volunteers from the different regions of Southern California to assist in hosting local happy hours, social events, and community programming for the larger SCGC membership. If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to info@socalgc.org.

Introducing “The Fridge”

Do you and/or your colleague(s) have an accomplishment that deserves to be celebrated? Submit your accomplishments so the SCGC membership 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: https://forms.gle/Fb957H2WS9f58ZRb9 

Autumn Updates from the SCGC Board of Directors

Thursday, November 14th is Genetic Counselor Awareness Day!

Please join SCGC at Happy Hour to celebrate. There will be GC Awareness Day Happy Hours in 3 locations. See details:

• San Diego

  • Thursday, November 14th

  • 5:30-7:30pm

  • Ballast Point Brewing Miramar, Outdoor Patio

  • 9045 Carroll Way, San Diego, CA

• Orange County

  • Thursday, November 14th

  • 6:00-8:00pm

  • 4th Street Market

  • 201 E 4th St., Santa Ana, CA

• Los Angeles

  • Thursday, November 14th

  • 6:00-8:00pm

  • Citizen Public Market, 1st Floor

  • 9355 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA

SCGC Elections

Vote for the 2025 SCGC Board of Directors! We have an exciting slate of nominees. All full members (board-certified or board-eligible genetic counselors working or residing in Southern California) are able to participate in the election. Slate is provided below. Full members will receive voting instructions to approve the slate and/or write in candidate suggestions on Monday, November 18th. Voting will be open 11/18-11/27.

New Slate:

President Elect: Lauren Siems Watson

Treasurer: Emily Parkhurst

Secretary: Ruben Martin

Membership Co-Chairs: Nicole Choy and Jamie Phan

Outreach Co-Chairs: Hunaydah Elfarawi and Rushna Raza Inaba

The continuing positions will be:

Executive Officers

President: Rebecca LeShay Araujo

Past President: Joan Oliver

Directors at Large

Marketing: Annina Cooper

Education Co-Chairs: Kathryn Reyes and Nydia Santiago Neal

DEI Co-Chairs: Amanda de Leon and Ariadna Martinez

Many thanks to the Nominating Committee:

Emily Sarnoff

Kalina Stefanov

Nydia Santiago Neal, Education Co-Chair

Naomi Wagner, outgoing Membership Chair

Stacey Wong, Past President and Nominating Committee Chair 

Voting instructions will be emailed out to full members on Monday, November 18th.

Update your SCGC Profile

To make sure you are able to vote and receive other important SCGC updates, please remember to update your information on the SCGC website! First, log in to the SCGC website. You can find your contact information by clicking on the down arrow to the right of your name at the top right corner of the home page. Click “My Account” to view and update your profile information. With many job changes happening and students graduating and joining the genetic counseling profession, your information may need updating. Updating your location will also help us to plan more local events! Contact info@socalgc.org with questions.

Winter Updates from the Board of Directors ❄

Happy winter from Southern California Genetic Counselors! Wishing you a safe and joyful holiday season. Please see important updates from the BOD below:

Vote for the 2024 SCGC Board of Directors!

We have an exciting slate of nominees. The final day to approve the slate and/or write in candidate suggestions is Tuesday, December 19th! All full members are able to participate in the election. Slate and voting instructions are both provided below.

New slate:

President elect: Rebecca LeShay Araujo

Education co chairs: Kathryn Reyes and Nydia Santiago Neal

DEI co chairs: Amanda de Leon and Ariadna Martinez

The continuing positions are:

Executive officers

President: Joan Oliver

Past-President: Stacey Wong

Secretary: Hilary Kershberg

Treasurer: Lauren Siems

Directors at large

Marketing: Annina Cooper

Membership: Naomi Wagner

Outreach and Community Engagement: Nicole Choy and Paloma Boeck

Many thanks to the Nominating Committee:

Taylor Berninger

Cathi Franklin

Emily Parkhurst

Naomi Wagner

Michelle Fox, Chair 

Voting instructions:

1. Go to socalgc.org.

2. Log-in to your SCGC Account. (If you have not registered yet, please do so! Visit socalgc.org/membership for details.)

3. Go to your SCGC Account page by clicking the arrow on the top right.

4. Scroll down and select the "Go to Vote" button.

5. On the Elections page, you can review the list of all candidates on the current slate, including photos, bios, and CV/resumes.

6. At the bottom, you have the opportunity to write-in any candidate suggestions

7. To approve the slate, select "Accept"

Northern California & Southern California Collaboration

We are excited to announce that the Northern California Coalition of Genetic Counselors and the Southern California Genetic Counselors are considering collaborating for a joint annual education conference in 2025. This conference would replace our two separate annual conferences for that year. To help with our planning, we are requesting feedback from our members and community. Please fill out this survey by mid-January: https://forms.gle/ztZQjorhAQxPZCKm6. We would like to get all of our members to respond.

SCGC Education Update

We wrapped up a successful 2023 webinar series, and all attendees who claimed CEUs should be able to access their certificate in their NSGC portal. Thank you for joining us throughout the year, and keep an eye out for more details and registration information for the 2024 series, which will start January 23rd!

Happy Hours!

Thank you to all who attended the San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles Happy Hours. We hope to have more social events in 2024. Please reach out to info@socalgc.org you would like to help organize a SCGC happy hour in your area.

SD Happy Hour (picured, left) on 8/22 had a great turnout, with about 20 attendees total. We are excited to have more local gatherings.

OC Happy Hour (pictured, right) on 9/28 was a success. It was great to get together, meet some new people, and visit with old friends.

LA Happy Hour (pictured, left) was so fun! We met on Friday 11/17 in Culver City and discussed having another casual meet-up in the spring 😀

We are looking forward to more SCGC educational events and social gatherings in 2024! Thank you for being part of SCGC.