Huether Endowment for the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program
In 2007, the first endowment fund for the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program was established by Dr. and Mrs. Carl A. Huether. In the early 1980s, Carl Huether provided the vision for developing a new breed of professional training at UC, and became the founding director of the UC Genetic Counseling Graduate Program. At that time, only a handful of similar training programs existed nationally.
Motivated by his passion for teaching genetics and an interest in promoting new applications of human genetics, Huether collaborated with clinical genetics professionals at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to establish the two-year master’s degree. Huether was the program director from 1982-1992 but remained involved with the program as a faculty adviser, research mentor, teacher and program advocate.
Over the years, Huether taught and mentored over 100 genetic counseling graduate students in areas such as human genetics, research, epidemiology and population genetics (including the dreaded Bayes theorem).
The Genetic Counseling Graduate Program Endowment Fund was established upon Huether’s retirement from the Department of Biology after 41 years. To mark the occasion, many Genetic Counseling Graduate Program graduates contributed good wishes and stories recalling fond memories of Huether and his wife, Carol, which were bound into an honorary booklet.
The Genetic Counseling Graduate Program has been working with the UC Foundation to expand the Dr. and Mrs. Carl A. Huether Endowment Fund. Funds are used to defray direct student costs for expenses such as those related to attending national professional meetings and conducting their research projects.
