Local Student Becomes a New Member of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Board of Directors

The 2019 SNMA Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) was held in Philadelphia, PA from April 17th – April 21st. At this convention, Ms. Kristin Williams was elected to the position of Region IX Director .

At the 2019 AMEC, medical students and professionals gathered to attend a wide range of educational and networking events. It is consistently the largest gathering of underrepresented minority medical students at any time of the year in any place in the nation.

Kristin grew up in South Jamaica, Queens and attended the Bronx High School of Science. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2016 with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Biological Sciences. During that time, she was one of the founding members of the Wellesley College MAPS chapter.

Kristin is now a MSIII at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the great Region IX. Prior to her election to Regional Director, she served as co-president for the Albert Einstein SNMA chapter. Although her time outside of my clerkship responsibilities is limited, she is still involved in a number of different organizations including, Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Student Mental Health Center Advisory Board, WellMed Committee, White Coats for Black Lives and a local pipeline program called the Bronx Community Health Leaders.

Kristin is interested in a career in primary care with a focus on social medicine, public health, and health disparities. She is very passionate about activism and advocacy in medicine and hopes to serve in academic medicine and healthcare administration in the future. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, visiting with friends, and traveling. The SNMA and other pipeline programs have been a great source of support to her throughout her journey to becoming a physician. She is honored to be able to give back to this great organization as a member of the BOD. As a native New Yorker, she is thrilled to serve as Regional Director to the SNMA and MAPS chapters in New York and New Jersey and to help students in this area reach their ultimate goals.

More than 2,000 medical and pre-medical students, physicians, exhibitors, administrators, government officials, and observers attended the 2019 AMEC. It is truly a distinct honor for Ms. Williams to be elected to her position.

The theme of the 2019 AMEC was The Call for Excellence: Improving the Future of Medicine through Leadership, Service, and Activism . The SNMA follows its mission by creating programming initiatives to support current and future underrepresented minority medical students. Members simultaneously address the needs of underserved communities. The SNMA also works to increase the number of clinically excellent, culturally competent, and socially conscious physicians. For more information, please visit www.snma.org.

About SNMA

Founded in 1964 by medical students from Howard University College of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) is the nation’s oldest and largest, independent, student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns of medical students of color. Organized with chapters across the nation, the SNMA membership includes over 7,000 medical students, pre-medical students and physicians. SNMA is dedicated to increasing the number of African-American, Latino, and other students of color entering and completing medical school and to assisting in the eradication of racial and ethnic health disparities. SNMA community service and mentoring programs provide science appreciation, health care education, mentoring, and academic enrichment to elementary, junior high school, high school and college students interested in pursuing health-related careers.