Alumni Spotlight: Samantha Brovold, Class of 2015

Back in my UNCG days, I certainly would have been surprised to see myself now, heading into my fourth year as a laboratory genetic counselor. Whenever I’m asked how my job is going or how I’m liking it, I always respond that I truly love it more and more every year, which is a pretty amazing feat in and of itself. As a student, I imagined myself choosing between the three pillars of genetic counseling – cancer, prenatal, or peds – and even thoughtfully declined vying for the laboratory rotation offered. Irony at its best. Even in the first few days [weeks] of starting my laboratory role, I wasn’t quite sure what the job description really entailed – what would I actually ‘do’ all day – or how I could apply all my cultivated skills from graduate school and clinical rotations. Again, famous last words.

Having high level conversations with clinicians, collating data for publications, being at the forefront of genome-wide cfDNA screening, and working closely with lab directors regarding data interpretation, reporting rules, and bioinformatics have been some of the most rewarding components of this career track. Of course, working from home is a major perk too. Though admittedly personal hygiene suffers, as my canine co-workers don’t set high expectations in that department and packing ‘real’ clothes for NSGC becomes a real struggle. While I can fully appreciate that work from home life isn’t for all-comers, the perks far outweigh the cons. Thankfully I am part of a close-knit, amazing team of genetic counselors and even though we don’t physically work together, the group texts and inside jokes make it feel otherwise. Working in this kind of a setting also lends itself to establishing professional relationships with other providers and counselors across the country. When NSGC rolls around you’re able to put faces to the voices you’ve been chatting with for years and realize your professional network is so much larger than previously realized.

With the geographic flexibility afforded when working from home, I’ve really enjoyed being able to stay in Greensboro. I was a speaker at the recent NCMGA meeting and presented about challenges in cfDNA screening with a focus on leveraging bioinformatics tools that aid in data interpretation. I’ve been able to stay better connected with the UNCG program too, which I’ve loved. While at UNCG, I had such a phenomenal experience during my rotations and built lasting relationships with my supervisors. After graduating, I had looked forward to maintaining a connection with the program through clinical supervision. With educational lectures and capstone committees, I was able to still maintain that connection in the laboratory role. This past fall was my third year hosting the annual UNCG NIPT Day (suggestions for a snazzier name appreciated) where I get to present interesting cases, complex discordant results, and dive into technology and data interpretation with the current students.

In just these few short years, I’ve been lucky to be involved in such a rapidly expanding field with endless new opportunities. There is always more data to be crunched or crazy cases to write up, which makes it easy to be involved in numerous posters presented at both domestic and international conferences, with topics ranging from complex monosomy X discrepancies to biologic rescue mechanisms like telomere capture and segmental UPD. I’m currently working on a case series manuscript and have had a few papers published from my NIH summer rotation, including a first author systematic review. With the acquisition by LabCorp, I’ve been able to cross-train with the cytogenetics group (including other UNCG alum!) and their lab directors to become a part of the microarray review team -often seeing the steps following prenatal screening. In 2017, I was truly honored to be nominated and awarded LabCorp’s Laboratorian of the Year.

Last year an opportunity with a telegenetics company, GeneMatters, presented itself. I was able to join a fantastic team of genetic counselors and provide phone counseling for a wide variety of pre and post-test counseling. I had to dust off a few cobwebs on all things non NIPT, especially non prenatal, but it was a nice way to keep a toe in the water and interact directly with patients. Though I’ve realized the bridge between clinical and lab work is short, with lots of overlap. Just like in clinical genetics where there are exceptions to every rule and variability reigns supreme, in the laboratory you learn to appreciate data interpretation and reporting nuances. I’ve found talking with clinicians vs. patients has more similarities than differences. Knowing your audience, using shared language, and meeting someone where they’re starting are all clinical counseling skills that I find myself using in every single conversation – clinician or patient. I’m happy I didn’t listen to myself and instead kept an open mind exploring different avenues of our profession, especially since these ‘non-traditional’ roles aren’t always so non-traditional.