Overview
The University of Washington Genetic Counseling Graduate Program (UW GCGP) is committed to identifying, dismantling, and replacing racist behaviors, systems, and policies within ourselves and our program. We recognize that racism is institutionalized in the United States, including in health care and higher education. We are committed to making the UW GCGP a place where students, faculty, staff, and fieldwork supervisors who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are welcomed, feel comfortable, and can advance and thrive.
These statements of commitment are meaningless unless they’re backed by action. We're striving for transparency and accountability in this anti-racism work, so below are some specific things we have done, are doing, and will do.
- We formed the Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity (DARE) Committee to keep us focused on anti-racism actions.
- We removed the GRE as a requirement for admission because of its racial and gender biases.
- We developed a holistic admissions review process to reduce biases that plague more traditional metrics-based admissions.
- We’re exploring ways to actively recruit BIPOC students, in part through the UW Health Professions Recruitment Collaborative.
- Our curriculum and supplemental activities include materials, lectures, discussions, and outreach efforts that promote and foster diversity, anti-racism, anti-harassment, and equity.
- We’re focusing on diversifying our faculty, guest lecturers, and staff, including promoting job postings through the Minority Genetic Professionals Network.
- Our program leadership team participated in an intensive, two-day Undoing Institutional Racism workshop conducted by The People’s Institute Northwest.
We are committed to educating ourselves and to doing the anti-racism work, both personally and professionally. We realize that to make true progress, we must actively listen to and take direction from BIPOC folks and then act.
We invite all people interested in our program, and especially those who are BIPOC, to engage with us. If you have comments or questions, please contact Robin Bennett, our Program Director.