About Us

Since 1990, the Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of our field and the future of the profession. We welcome your interest in our program and invite you to learn more.

• Director's Message
  Learn more about our program's mission from our director Debra Duquette, MS. 
• About Chicago
  Discover the vibrant city we call home.
• Why Northwestern?
  Learn more about the benefits of choosing our program.
• Giving
  Help our program reach our goals.
• Contact Us
  Connect with our program leadership and staff.
• Bias Reporting

We are a collaborative community of experienced leadership and highly engaged faculty across Chicagoland and beyond. Our students bring talent, commitment and diverse perspectives to the genetic counseling profession. 

The following list includes our program objectives:

• Prepare students to be effective genetic counselors with all populations and cultures in various workplace settings.
• Provide students coursework that includes a balance of psychosocial, medical, genomic, scientific and research components.
• Develop students’ independent critical thinking skills and professional ethics.
• Develop students’ teamwork, professional identity, self-motivation, and self-evaluation skills. Prepare students for the ever-changing landscape of genetics, genomics, and genetic counseling by continuing to evaluate and change the program
• Engage with genetic counseling, including direct and non-direct patient care, teaching, research, and leadership components.
• Ensure students develop the core skills of a genetic counselor to prepare for multiple work settings.
• Develop students’ oral and written communication skills across digital and in-person platforms.
• Prepare students for ABGC examination and post-graduate learning practices.

These objectives are evaluated through consideration of the genetic counseling competencies using a specific evaluation framework developed by the program. This includes the required ACGC Practice-Based Competencies (PBC) for Genetic Counselors that an entry level provider must demonstrate to successfully practice as a genetic counselor. 

Our program has maintained full accreditation from ACGC since its inception. The process of reaccreditation includes an ACGC site visit and comprehensive review of our program every 8 years.  Our last reaccreditation site visit and review occurred was in November 2022.  ACGC highlighted changes including increasing our class size from 14 to 20 students, expanding the program leadership team, increasing the number of fieldwork placements, and implementing multiple efforts to improve coursework and fieldwork placements.  Specific program strengths conveyed by ACGC are:

• Students benefit tremendously from a very rich local environment in terms of professional leaders, clinical sites, and research opportunities. The Northwestern community is a close-knit and supportive group available to mentor and work with students.

• Program leadership is very open to feedback and proactive to making changes as needed, despite being a well-established program.

• Program leadership is available and responsive to student and faculty feedback and communication. The program has built a supportive environment that both students and faculty thrive in.