Dawn Allain: Genetic counselor wearing many hats

Dawn Allain is an outgoing, energetic individual who recounts that her passion in childhood was horses. Fortunately, the NSGC President instead turned her passion to genetics. She credits Mr. Harper, her high school biology teacher, with piquing her curiosity about the field.

The impetus that sparked Dawn's fascination with genetics was the sophomore year fruit fly biology experiment. After Mr. Harper suggested Dawn research career opportunities in genetics, she happened upon genetic counseling.

Additionally, Dawn recalls the impact that one of her best friends had on her career choice. Dawn's childhood friend, Lynn, has cystic fibrosis (CF). Seeing Lynn in her mist tent was just a routine part of sleepovers for Dawn, Lynn and their sisters-four close friends.

Dawn was impressed by the ability of her friend's family to cope with integrating a chronic illness into their daily lives. As Dawn learned more about genetic counseling, one aspect of the profession that appealed to her was the role of providing psychosocial and supportive counseling to patients. These experiences helped Dawn realize that genetic counseling was essentially the perfect career choice.

From sophomore year of high school on, Dawn's sole mission was to become a genetic counselor. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a biology degree followed by a two-year stint doing cancer research at Tufts Medical School, Dawn attended the genetic counseling training program at Northwestern University.

After obtaining her Master's degree, Dawn worked as a prenatal genetic counselor in New York City and then accepted a position at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, the institution that inspired television's "ER". High points of Dawn's experiences there included helping to start a Huntington's Disease program and launching a cancer screening program for at-risk minority groups. Low points included being trapped in an elevator on more than one occasion!

In 1998, Dawn decided it would be cooler by the lake and accepted a position at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. At her position in Milwaukee, Dawn wears many professional hats. The question really is, what doesn't Dawn Allain do?

Dawn is something of a metabolic genetics guru and has been actively involved in implementation of expanded newborn screening in Wisconsin. Given her love of patient advocacy and education, much of her time was spent educating physicians and developing fact sheets for families, which helped to alleviate their anxiety.

As clinical coordinator of the hospital's metabolic program, Dawn is involved with the lysosomal storage disease treatment center, and her role includes assisting in the enzyme replacement clinical trials for Fabry disease. She organizes yearly patient advocacy meetings and also established a Gaucher disease support group within the local community.

Aside from her expertise with metabolic disorders, Dawn also specializes in seeing patients with known or suspected mitochondrial disorders. Dawn is fascinated by this area of genetics because, "It's a whole different animal from other genetic disorders. I spend a lot of time with families helping them cope on a day-to-day basis with all of the different issues that arise. And there are so many disbelievers, including other medical professionals, friends and families who just don't buy that the child has a mitochondrial disorder." Dawn is working hard to change these misconceptions -- she was on the advisory committee for a local chapter of the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, has participated in and facilitated a local support group, and designed a family packet of educational materials that is given to all new patients. Dawn considers her involvement with this group of disorders to be one of her loves.

"I think that my biggest interest when it comes to clinical care-and I think it all goes back to Lynn-is this integration of genetic disease in families. So I spend a lot of my time ensuring that families have appropriate support services."

“I share my devotion to the profession and encourage [students] to become actively involved in the NSGC. I share lots of stories from my own clinical experience – and the lessons I learned from patients and colleagues along the way. I try to model the importance of keeping your sense of humor and having balance in your life.”

Considering Dawn's level of dedication and commitment to her patients and the profession, Dawn's accomplishments are amazing, especially considering that she does not currently work full time. When asked how she has time to see patients at risk for hereditary cancer syndromes, teach bioethics to medical students, hold a faculty appointment at the Medical College of Wisconsin and pursue licensure for genetic counselors in her state, Dawn's response was, "In Wisconsin we have 8 day weeks!"

Needless to say, Dawn's husband is extremely supportive and would like to see NSGC excel as much as Dawn would. "Then he wouldn't have to explain to everyone what his wife does for a living-they would just know!" There is hope that "genetic counseling" will be a household word by the time Dawn's 15-month-old daughter is able to understand what her mother does at work.

"We have a ways to go to achieve that recognition of being a well-known profession, even among other health care professionals, yet we have come so far very quickly for a young profession. However, we need members to get involved to continue to move that goal forward."

In her presidential year, Dawn wants to see NSGC continue to excel and ensure that the organization is in a position of strength to take advantage of new challenges and opportunities in healthcare.

"I love our profession; I love to see how we are evolving... I want to continue to see it move in a positive direction." Dawn is one of the many people moving the profession forward, but one with quite a hat collection.

Other links describing Ms. Allain's work:
Faculty listing at Medical College of Wisconsin
Genetics Department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Froedert Hospital and MCW Faculty listing
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on creating a family medical tree
Issues Raised by Newborn Screening for Fatty Acid Oxidation Disorders Through the Eyes of Genetic Counselors
Genetic Testing Offers Information and Dilemmas