Securing a more stable economic future for genetic counselors with Samantha Baxter, MS, CGC

• Given the current financial climate across the genomics community, including failing commercial laboratories, limited research funding, and continued pressure to cut healthcare spending in hospitals, it is imperative genetic counselors review our own economic climate. While there is existing research on the demand and value of genetic counseling, little discussion and research exists for the economics of genetic counselors themselves. This session will review how the various factors, including the rising costs of secondary education, financial environment of venture capitalists, grant funding, healthcare billing practices, and government policies impact the demand for our field.

  Level of instruction: Basic

  

  Only the live session qualifies for CEUs but when possible, we host the recordings on our website and NSGC recommends participants to use their personal email instead of work email addresses to ensure they receive their CEU certificates.

  

  Ambry Genetics is approved as a provider for continuing education program by NSGC and ASCLS P.A.C.E ® Program.

Samantha Baxter, MS, CGC | Presenter

Associate Director, Genetic and Genomic Data Sharing at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Samantha Baxter is the Associate Director, Genetic and Genomic Data Sharing, and a genetic counselor in the Program in Medical and Population Genetics Translational Genomics Group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Under the direction of Heidi Rehm, she is the operations manager and council member for gnomAD, she co-chairs the policy working group for the GREGoR Consortium, and she leads the TGG’s variant curation team. As part of Baxter’s ongoing research, in partnership with Chan Zuckerberg’s Rare As One network, she uses various curation and gnomAD allele frequencies to estimate the prevalence of rare disease in the global population. Baxter’s work has a strong focus on data modeling and scalable processes for clinical and genomic data sharing, across multiple efforts, including the Broad Institute’s Center for Mendelian Genomics, gnomAD, BRCA Exchange, and the Clinical Genome Resource. 

Baxter obtained her M.S. in genetic counseling from the Boston University School of Medicine and holds a B.S. in behavioral neuroscience from Lehigh University. She is certified as a genetic counselor through the American Board of Genetic Counseling and is a licensed genetic counselor in the state of Massachusetts.

Grant Bonesteele, MS, CGC | Moderator

Clinical Science Liaison

Grant Bonesteele is a Clinical Science Liaison at Ambry Genetics. In this role, he provides support to healthcare providers across the United States, serving as a knowledgeable and reliable resource for genetic testing in oncology, cardiology, and rare disease. Before joining Ambry, Grant was a prenatal genetic counselor at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, TX. Grant received his Master of Science in Genetic Counseling from the University of Texas Health Science Center, and he is certified by the American Board of Genetic Counseling.