If you’re one of the 11 physician leaders chosen for the second cohort of the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship, you’ve already proven your commitment to health equity and health advocacy. What you need now is support from experts in the field to maximize your potential.
The fellowship is an initiative created by the AMA Center for Health Equity and Morehouse School of Medicine’s Satcher Health Leadership Institute to empower physician-led advocacy that advances equity and removes barriers to optimal health for people from historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups.
It is the first post-doctoral fellowship of its kind. The fellowship provides a mentoring and training platform that equips participants with the foundational knowledge and skills that are critical to effective health equity advocacy.
The next generation of leaders
Selected from a highly selective pool of applicants from across the U.S., the 2022–2023 Medical Justice in Advocacy fellows represent a diverse field of medical professionals in a variety of specialties.
They are:
- Jerry P. Abraham, MD, CMQ, MPH, director and chief vaccinologist at Kedren Vaccines, in Los Angeles. Dr. Abraham also serves on the AMA Council on Constitution and Bylaws.
- Dhara Amin, MD, director of quality improvement and patient safety for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Cook County Health, in Chicago.
- Nadia Norton Anspach, MD, medical officer for the Indian Health Service, in rural Arizona.
- Amanda Calhoun, MD, MPH, an adult and child psychiatry resident at Yale Child Study Center and Yale University School of Medicine.
- Amna Khan, MD, an outpatient pediatrician at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, in San Jose, California.
- Greta Manning, MS, MD, a family medicine physician at Premier Medical Group, in Clarksville, Tennessee.
- Anjali Niyogi, MD, MPH, associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine.
- Hannibal Person, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
- Richard Silvera, MD, MPH, assistant professor of infectious diseases at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City.
- Carl Streed Jr., MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Streed also is vice chair of the AMA Advisory Committee on LGBTQ Issues.
- Tiffany Wiggins, MD, MPH, medical officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and maternal health adviser at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Learn more about how the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship helps doctors dig deeper into the inequities they see daily.
Also, read this In Full Health Q&A with a previous fellow, Kameryn Lee, MD, MSPH, on equity, innovation and transgender health.
Guidance from experts in the field
The fellowship got underway in September and will run through November 2023. Each fellow started with a two-day, in-person learning intensive, followed by monthly learning sessions with a multidisciplinary group of nationally renowned experts, scholars, researchers and current and former policymakers from varying levels of government.
The fellowship program also features flexible, blended learning opportunities that can be incorporated into a clinical schedule.
Topics the fellows will explore include:
- Models that address social and structural drivers of health.
- How structural, cultural, political and historical forces produce inequities.
- The sector and resource engagement required to improve community health and well-being.
The implementation of the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship aligns with the AMA’s strategic approach to collaborate with stakeholders to eliminate health inequities by pushing upstream and creating pathways for truth, reconciliation and healing to remove obstacles in patient care.
Learn more about the AMA Center for Health Equity, which is led by AMA Senior Vice President and Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH.
Dr. Maybank was recently honored by Fierce Healthcare, topping the news organization’s list of “most influential minority executives” in health care this year.
