Back to News Releases
Jennifer Forbes
Communications & Public Affairs
732-235-6356, jenn.forbes@umdnj.edu
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Students Assume National Leadership Roles
Piscataway, NJ – Four UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School students have been elected to national leadership positions with the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation’s largest independent medical student organization.
Fourth-year medical student Danielle Salovich, from Minneapolis, MN, and now living in Cherry Hill, NJ, was elected as AMSA's national president for 2011-2012. Danielle, who will graduate from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in May, will serve full-time at AMSA in Washington, DC, where she will lead the Board of Trustees, manage the organization's budget, maintain coalitions and alliances on Capitol Hill, and visit medical and pre-medical AMSA chapters across the country. Danielle served as AMSA's vice president of internal affairs in 2010-2011, national secretary during 2009-2010, and national region II director from 2008 to 2010. In addition, as an undergraduate at Arizona State University, Phoenix, she served as national premedical minority affairs representative from 2004-2005. At Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Danielle served as chapter representative during her first year and as co-president during her second year of medical school.
Shazia Mehmood, a third-year medical student from Somerset, NJ, was elected vice president of leadership development for 2011-2012. A member of AMSA's Board of Trustees, Shazia will help manage the organization's budget, run a series of leadership development skills sessions and expand feedback and recognition for AMSA national leaders. This past year, Shazia served as the organization's national policy chair and co-legislative director. She previously served as the national policy coordinator for the race, ethnicity, and culture in health committee for two years from 2008 to 2010. A graduate of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa., Shazia served as the health policy fellow for two years as a member of the AMSA chapter at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and ran the medical school's health policy non-credit elective.
Pheobe Askie, a second-year student from Deptford, NJ, was elected to be one of AMSA's regional directors. In this capacity, she will work closely with chapter officers in New Jersey, New York and Puerto Rico to help oversee membership recruitment and aid in programming efforts throughout the region. Pheobe, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, served this past year as president for the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Chapter of AMSA.
First-year medical student Luming Li, originally from Edison, NJ, who now resides in Holmdel, NJ, was elected to be AMSA's national global health chair for the upcoming year. As chair, she will lead a team of six global coordinators to run programming on global health for AMSA chapters at medical schools across the country. She also will become a part of AMSA's programming board, helping to shape AMSA's resources and activities that are available to students. Luming is a graduate of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and is a student in the joint bachelor’s/medical degree program between Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
About the American Medical Student Association
AMSA is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at www.amsa.org.
About UMDNJ-ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL
As one of the nation’s leading comprehensive medical schools, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in education, research, health care delivery, and the promotion of community health. In cooperation with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, the medical school’s principal affiliate, they comprise New Jersey’s premier academic medical center. In addition, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School has 34 other hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the region.
As one of the eight schools of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey with 2,800 full-time and volunteer faculty, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School encompasses 22 basic science and clinical departments, hosts centers and institutes including The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Child Health Institute of New Jersey, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. The medical school maintains educational programs at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels for more than 1,500 students on its campuses in New Brunswick, Piscataway, and Camden, and provides continuing education courses for health care professionals and community education programs. To learn more about UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, log on to rwjms.umdnj.edu. Find us online at www.Facebook.com/RWJMS and www.twitter.com/UMDNJ_RWJMS.
# # #
