Your ABGC Committees in Action: Recent Developments and Plans
2025 is off to a strong start with the thoughtful effort of ABGC’s committees. In this article, three committees share updates on recent achievements and goals for the coming months.
Certification Exam Committee
Katie Dunn, MS, CGC, Chair, and Elizabeth Ulm Seiwert, MS, CGC, Co-Chair
The Certification Exam Committee (CEC) is starting off the year with great momentum and excitement. Elizabeth Ulm Seiwert was appointed as the co-chair and brings a wealth of expertise in the laboratory and pediatric spaces. She currently works at Cincinnati Children's and after serving as an item writer, joined the CEC three years ago. When not sharing her genetics expertise with patients and the CEC, Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking and camping.
Over the past several months, the CEC has been diligently working to ensure transparency and accuracy in the board exam content and references. A consolidated reference list was developed for exam candidates. View the most updated version in the "Exam Resources" dropdown on the ABGC website. One of our key initiatives has been re-referencing over 250 test items to this updated reference list. This effort guarantees that our exam content is up-to-date, accurate and easily findable in reputable sources. By maintaining transparency about the board exam content and references, we aim to provide candidates with the best possible resources to prepare for their certification exam.
In addition to transparency, the CEC is committed to ensuring the exam content reflects the current scope of practice for genetic counselors by aligning the exam with the ABGC practice analysis. We encourage all genetic counselors to fill out the practice analysis when they receive it, as these responses are essential to creating an exam that is relevant and reflective of the ever-evolving field of genetic counseling.
Finally, the CEC is dedicated to reducing bias and improving inclusivity in our exam items. We continuously monitor and review items through this lens to ensure that our exam is fair and inclusive for all candidates. Our ongoing goal is to create an exam that not only assesses knowledge and skills accurately but also promotes diversity and equity within the genetic counseling profession.
Continuing Competence Committee
Angie Trepanier, MS, CGC, Board Liaison
Since the last update from the Continuing Competence Committee, ABGC has launched its first two Continuing Competence Learning Scenarios. These are available for all ABGC Diplomates in the ABGC LearningBuilder portal. Each scenario is worth 0.1 CEU and will count toward 2026 requirements — see more details on the dedicated webpage. At the time of writing, more than 1,000 CGCs have begun the scenarios.
To provide additional information about this new program, the Continuing Competence Committee put together the following background about the inception of the new learning scenario program. In 2010, an Institute of Medicine report, Redesigning Continuing Education in Health Professions, highlighted flaws in the current system of continuing education, which focuses more on participation than performance and improvement. This report and continued conversations about evaluating continuing competence prompted ABGC to reevaluate our continuing education and recertification processes.
In 2018, ABGC held a round table with diverse participants to discuss potential changes to the recertification program. The conclusion was that further investigation was needed. In 2019, ABGC launched the Continuing Competence Taskforce to explore what other organizations are doing for continuing education and promoting competence. They examined various programs, including those in our genetics profession.
As a result of these investigations, the taskforce concluded that some changes to current methods for evaluating continuing competence were needed. They proposed adopting a system called “learning through concordance” and developing learning scenarios to apply this process. After much discussion and deliberation, the ABGC Board approved the learning through concordance program. This decision was not taken lightly. Changes to continuing education requirements and recertification require Diplomates to learn new processes. However, our mission is to provide high-quality opportunities to demonstrate initial and continuing competence, aligned with other health care professions and our accrediting organization, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. That is ultimately why we chose to develop and launch the new Continuing Competence Learning Scenario Program.
The Continuing Competence Committee is comprised of a dedicated group of educators with decades of experience training students and colleagues and a commitment to providing an innovative, effective method for Diplomates to demonstrate continuing competence. The Committee and the ABGC Board are confident that these learning scenarios will be a valuable addition to existing methods for demonstrating competence. We encourage you to participate in the pilot to experience it firsthand.
By participating, you can provide reflective feedback on the learning scenarios. Feedback will help us improve the program for the official launch in 2026. Any time a new education program is launched, there is always room for improvement, and your input will make the program stronger.
Thank you for participating. We hope you find this beneficial to your continuing competence.
DEIJ Committee
Josie Baker, MS, CGC, Chair, and Nick Charles Paolino, MS, CGC, Vice-Chair
In our last Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) Committee update, we shared the news that we created an ABGC Need-Based Certification Scholarship to recognize and support individuals who may experience financial burden with taking the ABGC Certification Examination. We are excited to share that the first scholarship cycle launched in September 2024, and we were able to award 12 scholarships to individuals to fully fund their February 2025 exam. Our next scholarship cycle opened on March 1 for the August 2025 exam.
Additionally, we have partnered with the North American Genetic Counseling Organizations (NAGCO) to identify and tackle issues across the profession, create ways organizations can support each other, share resources and create more cohesion among the organizations. In early 2024, a DEIJ-specific collaboration began. In October 2024, we cohosted a webinar as our first joint effort with the goal of improving transparency of each organization’s work within the DEIJ space. This collaboration is ongoing.
Lastly, we welcome and thank our new and existing committee members as we continue to grow in 2025 with 12 members! We are excited to explore and create new ways to advocate for DEIJ efforts in the genetic counseling profession.
Meet Your 2025 DEIJ Committee Chairs
Josie Baker, MS, CGC, Chair
Josie Baker is a certified genetic counselor, who specializes in GI cancer, polyposis and LGBTQIA+ patient care. As part of the queer community, Baker has experienced firsthand the barriers that underrepresented communities face in their personal and professional lives. These experiences have made Baker driven to help mitigate biases and advocate for DEIJ efforts in the genetic counseling profession. As the chair of ABGC’s DEIJ Committee, Baker is motivated and excited to continue to create ways to better serve our profession. Outside of genetic counseling, Baker enjoys walking their dogs, going to the library with their fiancée, reading and watching football.
Nick Charles Paolino, MS, CGC, Vice Chair
Nick Charles Paolino has been a certified genetic counselor for over a decade, specializing in prenatal and infertility genetics. He currently manages discrepancy investigations and adverse outcome response for CooperSurgical’s PGT laboratories. He is also heavily involved in genomics research and product development. As a proud and out queer man, DEIJ is a very important and personal topic for Paolino. As the new vice chair of the ABGC DEIJ committee, Paolino looks forward to continuing to identify gaps and inequalities within the genetic counseling profession and working to close and correct these gaps. Outside of genetic counseling, Paolino and his husband love fostering dogs, drag, live music, theater, horror movies and weightlifting. Paolino also loves video games, tabletop roll-playing games, singing and all kinds of crafting.