Andy Faucett: Looking at the Big Picture

Andy Faucett knew it was a beautiful house, but he also knew it could be more.

The little 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath place in the historic district of Savannah had what they call in the renovation business "good bones." Andy saw those bones, and at the same time saw a whole new house that could, and soon would, emerge.

"My father could build or repair anything and I learned how to do most types of construction from him," says Andy. "We needed more kitchen space and I wanted an outdoor porch, so we worked with one of our friends who happened to be an award winning architect. We added a galley-type kitchen on the first floor and a porch with a tin roof on the second floor."

Andy's vision of the new home built on an existing foundation, and his effort was duly rewarded with the Historic Preservation Award in Architectural Achievement from the Historic Savannah Foundation. But that's just one way in which Andy's vision of "the big picture" is paying off.

As a genetic counselor in residence with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Andy's primary focus is in making the connection between the field of genetics and the larger picture of public heath policy. Though the two disciplines have kept their distance, Andy says, both need to become more aware of the other's likely impact on health care in the 21st century.

"Health care decisions are going to be made by legislatures and health boards and health systems," Andy says. But at the same time, "over the next 5-10 years as we get more and more tests and learn more from the Human Genome Project, everyone is going to need to think about 'does genetics fit here?'."

While the study of that connection is his constant companion now, neither genetic counseling nor public health policy was high on Andy's list of priorities as a young man.

Andy first dreamed of being a doctor and entered the Medical University of South Carolina School of Medicine in 1979. After doing some soul-searching during his first year at medical school, he felt that teaching was his calling and returned to school to get his teaching certificate. Andy was hired as a science teacher and counselor at a high school for emotionally disturbed students, where he gained hands-on counseling experience.

During his second year as a teacher, Andy saw an article on genetic counseling and was intrigued at a medical career that would incorporate his counseling skills. After shadowing two genetic counselors, he was hooked.

"I liked the idea of the being able to help people by sharing very detailed scientific information, while putting it into plain English," says Andy.

Andy entered the genetic counseling program at Sarah Lawrence College in 1987. His first job as a new graduate was doing prenatal counseling at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and working with the maternal serum screening program.

"At the beginning, it was a little strange being a male talking about female reproductive issues," Andy reminisces, "but after a couple of weeks of that you get over it. I found that when I was in prenatal I related well to the men in the relationship, and pushed them to be more involved."

After two years in Houston, Andy longed to go back home to the South and accepted an opportunity to create an AFP screening and prenatal counseling program at Savannah Perinatology Associates in Georgia. As the field of genetic counseling evolved, Andy became increasingly interested in cancer and adult genetics, particularly relating to prevention measures to avoid disease manifestation in predisposed individuals.

After ten years in Savannah, Andy heard about a CDC career-development internship for scientists midway through their career. The purpose of the program, created by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine (ATPM), was to encourage scientists to incorporate public health principles into their career. In public health, the principal is to look at the bigger picture about what is best for the entire population.

"I felt real comfortable handling individual patients," says Andy, "but never thought about handling the population as a whole, and I thought that the CDC was a good place to learn."

Andy learned quickly, and states that one of his greatest achievements is creating linkages between public health and the genetics community. He enjoyed his three-year internship in Atlanta so much that he decided to do another internship at the CDC.

"I think that it is really neat that they think having a genetic counselor is important enough that they're treating me just as they do any other visiting scientist," Andy said.

One of Andy's goals is not only to find ways to incorporate genetics into medicine, but to also get genetics professionals to look at the big picture.

"Public health is very interested in genetics," says Andy, "but genetics isn't very interested in public health. Professionals in genetics need to understand public health because it is becoming more important, and there is a huge potential for lots of genetic counselors to be working in this area."

One of the ways Andy has achieved that mission is by staying very active within the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) and the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) as well as participating in a variety of research projects. Andy was recognized for his volunteer efforts within the NSGC when he was awarded the Region III Leadership Award in 2001 by his colleagues.

Although he enjoys donating his time contributing to the CDC's genetics program, Andy admits that he wants to get back to his genetic counseling roots in Savannah and strengthen genetics programs by getting the medical community interested in the genetics and prevention of adult diseases.

"I love being a genetic counselor. It's interesting that when I talk to people about my career that people comment that I obviously love what I'm doing. And I do. I think that it is a wonderful field and a wonderful profession, and I wish that more people knew about it."

Other links describing Mr. Faucett's work:
Work on genetic testing with CDC
Genomic competencies for the public health workforce
Educational Tool: Genetics in Clinical Practice
Mr. Faucett's CDC profile and a description of his project
Column in Savanna Now: "Health care system must adapt quickly to genome"
Pubmed list of Publications