EVMS hosts Student National Medical Association Regional Conference
Several hundred medical students from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., will make their EVMS this Friday and Saturday for the annual Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Region VI Conference. SNMA is a national organization that aims to support underrepresented minority medical students.
This is the first year the conference will be held at EVMS, and the theme is “Closing the Gap on Health Disparities.” EVMS students were excited to hear the organization chose their campus for the event.
“SNMA is committed to supporting underrepresented minorities like myself,” says Courtney Strickland, MD Class of 2016 and SNMA member. “The organization has served as a platform for me to grow as a leader, and I’m happy to see other EVMS students have the opportunity to get involved.”
During the conference, students will be able to gain new skills by way of clinical seminars, professional lectures, panels and discussions on various social issues. Cynthia Romero, MD (MD ’93), Director of the M. Foscue Brock Institute for Community and Global Health and former Virginia State Health Commissioner, will be the keynote speaker Friday night.
“SNMA conferences provide a great opportunity to discuss how personal identifiers affect a physician's treatment of a patient, and the patient's perception of the physician,” Ms. Strickland says. “SNMA recognizes that a team of diverse individuals can accomplish more than a team of like-minded individuals, in hopes that one day medical doctors will be as diverse as the patients they serve.”
Tickets are still available and attendees can register on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. or on Saturday from 8 to 9 a.m. in Lewis Hall. The cost is $41 for pre-med students and $51 for medical students, residents and physicians.
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