Member Spotlight: Sara Pirzadeh-Miller, NSGC President
This month, we are pleased to highlight another one of our fantastic TSGC members. Get to know Texas GC and current NSGC President, Sara Pirzadeh-Miller!
The Basics: When and where did you earn your MS? Where do you work?
I graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2005, and currently work at UT Southwestern Medical Center as the Director of the Cancer Genetics Program in the Simmons Cancer Center and Assistant Professor in UTSW School of Health Professions. I have been a GC at UTSW for over 17 years.
What has been a valuable learning experience in your career path or journey?
How much space do I have (ha)? In all seriousness, I think my most valuable learning experiences have been the barriers and setbacks to success. As much as it hurts in the moment, that’s when you learn what you need to do next to be better. To get to that goal. To think outside the box and come up with a new idea or option you might not have considered before. And when it works…it’s the best feeling ever of accomplishment over trials and tribulations. Inspiration to keep going and fighting the good fights.
Outside of your career, what brings you joy?
My family, traveling (I love the quote ‘those who wander are not lost’), reading, new experiences!
Tell us about a recent experience that made you grateful to be a genetic counselor!
I was reflecting on a recent patient encounter where, at the end of the visit, she said ‘We are so lucky to have people like you who can make such complicated things seem so much simpler. It doesn’t mean it is easier, but it makes so much more sense, and the knowledge you’ve given me is power.’ How my heart always warms when my genetic counselor core is activated like that. This year marks my 20th anniversary of becoming a GC, and I am STILL so grateful to love what I do and find excitement in what’s to come, to know I am continuing to grow and evolve in my work.
Tell us more about your involvement in NSGC and your path to becoming President.
My NSGC involvement started as a 2nd year student in 2004. At my first conference, I attended a Public Policy Committee (called at that time) meeting and raised my hand with an idea. I was recruited to help immediately and off I went! I went on to do various roles in the Cancer SIG, including co-chair, and also was involved on the TSGC side as Secretary years ago. I applied for the Director at Large role in the NSGC Board of Directors 3 times before I was slated for 2020-2021 term, which was during the height of pandemic and social unrest. Leadership in a ‘trial by fire’ time is one way to get some intense experience, but it has served me very well since then both in my volunteer leadership and ‘day job’ leadership trajectory. I was then asked by several respected colleagues and past presidents of NSGC if I was going to put my name in the ring for President-Elect, which funny enough I wasn’t really focused on prior to someone talking to me about why they thought I should. The more I investigated it and thought about it, I thought ‘why not me?’. I have many experiences in my career that lend themselves to applicable pieces of being fit for the President role, which I really started to see as I put my application together. I did not get slated the first time I went up for it (the wonderful Colleen Campbell did, and I was happy to lose out to her!), but then was slated the second time around. The lesson here is: if at first you don’t succeed, dust yourself off and try again. Tenacity has been the key to a lot of my eventual successes in my career at large.
What part of your role as NSGC President gets you most excited?
Such a fun question. I can’t tell you how happy I am that I decided to take this chance. I get exposure to so many different experiences that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, like learning about how to run an association; talking to international genetic counseling leaders about where we need to be strategically thinking about helping each other on the global scale for the sustainability of our work; working closely with our government relations experts on our federal efforts and how Washington DC works on the inside – and advocating for GCs to get PAID; being the spokesperson for the organization; going through the strategic planning process (twice now!) and thinking BIG about our organization and profession’s future. When I get to ask the question to our Board ‘what do you want this organization and our profession to look like 50 years from now? And YOU get to shape this!!’, that gets my excitement flowing.
What is one thing you would like to share with the TSGC community?
Volunteerism in aggregate is what has advanced our profession in the biggest ways over the years. To the many of you who have contributed in micro or macro levels (or both!), THANK YOU! And keep it going! I know that no organization can thank its volunteers in a way that everyone would most prefer but know that you are seen and appreciated more than you could know.