Advanced Research Training for Genetic Counselors Certificate Program
The Advanced Research Training Certificate Program for Genetic Counselors (or ART-GC) is the first graduate level program that provides genetic counselors with specific advanced training for research to prepare them to lead biomedical, translational, behavioral, and/or clinical research studies in genomic medicine.
It is a part-time, online, one-year program currently open only to genetic counselors who have graduated from an ACGC accredited master's program. Participating genetic counselors continue to work part-time in their current positions while completing the program.
Genetics experts at five prestigious medical schools are collaborating on the design and instruction for this program:
- University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University
- Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
- University of Washington School of Medicine
The Advanced Research Training for Genetic Counselors Certificate Program is funded by the Career Ladder Education for Genetic Counselors grant from the Warren Alpert Foundation.
In 2022, the Warren Alpert Foundation, a philanthropic group focused on public health, awarded a $9.7 million grant to PIs Kathleen Valverde, PhD, LCGC, and Daniel Rader, MD, to establish innovative programs that will help keep genetic counselors abreast of developments in the genomic medicine. Dr. Valverde is the Director of the Master of Science in Genetic Counseling Program in the Perelman School of Medicine and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Dr. Rader is Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine and Chief of the Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics in the Department of Medicine at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Chief of the Division of Human Genetics and Metabolic Disease Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Learn more:
Read more about the grant at https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2023/january/penn-awarded-grant-for-genetic-counselor-education-efforts.
Andrew Rhodes, Online Content Editor for Healio, an online journal for health care providers, interviewed Dr. Rader and Dr. Valverde about the history and anticipated impact of the CLEP-GC grant from the Warren Alpert Foundation. Read that here.
Wendy Ruderman, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, interviewed PI Kathleen Valverde at the time of the grant's announcement. Read her article here.
Questions?
Contact Tiff Hartman PhD, LCGC, the Associate Director of the Advanced Research Training Certificate Program, with any questions at tiff.hartman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
You can also contact Kathleen Valverde, PhD, LCGC, co-PI for the Career Ladder Education for Genetic Counselors grant at kathleen.valverde@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.