Students and residents travel to support health equity and a diverse student body

Northwestern Now: Summaries

Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc, vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion and chief of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine, presents at the Student National Medical Association’s Medical Education Conference.
A group of Northwestern medical students, residents, faculty and staff recently traveled to Atlanta to join more than 1,800 pre-medical and medical students from across the country to participate in the Student National Medical Association’s (SNMA) Medical Education Conference.
The annual SNMA conference is one of the largest gatherings of underrepresented minority medical students in the country, and was organized around the theme, “Lighting the Way: Creating Health Equity through Education, Advocacy and Service.” The five-day conference highlighted the importance of clinical excellence and community engagement in solving the health disparities of today, and focused on opportunities for students to grow as future physicians.
“Northwestern Medicine exercises a lead role in the SNMA education conference each year,” said Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc, vice dean for Diversity and Inclusion and chief of Cardiology in the Department of Medicine. “Recognizing that the world of healthcare is changing with care providers, investigators and patients emanating from very diverse backgrounds, we understand that our culture must change to remain contemporary.”
The SNMA conference was also an opportunity to network and connect with promising pre-medical students considering what medical school to attend in the future.
“As a leading academic medical center, we value the strength of a diverse environment where the best talent, best ideas and most inclusive care can be best facilitated by a Northwestern community that reflects the diversity of our world and is open to diverse points of view,” Yancy said. “The students we engage from the SNMA are our future leaders, practitioners and investigators. We can’t afford to miss our opportunities for excellence.”
Fourth-year Feinberg students, Leslie Okorji and Imo Uko, meet prospective medical students at the Northwestern Medicine booth ...

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