Fort Worth Medical Student Selected as AAMC National Representative

FORT WORTH – TCU School of Medicine student Charna Kinard has been selected to be one of five national representatives of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Organization of Student Representatives (OSR) Administrative Committee for the 2021-2022 academic year.

In September 2021, the AAMC’s OSR board held an election to select five current OSR delegates from medical schools across the nation to be a part of the OSR Administrative Committee. The five medical students selected will represent the OSR nationally and serve on high level decision-making committees.

“It was really an empowering moment for me being selected by my peers,” Kinard said. “I think so highly of my fellow OSRs. For them to feel that I would accurately and efficiently represent them on some of these large committees has been a great feeling.”

In 2021, Kinard joined the AAMC’s OSR Advancing Holistic Principles Advisory Committee (HRPAC) as a liaison for the school of medicine. The OSR collectively looks at ways to address disparities in the pre-medical, medical and graduate medical application process. She provides input to the AAMC on behalf of the students at the TCU School of Medicine and medical students at other institutions in the Southern U.S.

In her new role on the OSR Administrative Committee, she still has the responsibilities of the HRPAC along with being a part of the Group on Student Affairs – Committee on Admissions (GSA-COA) now.

“After the election we got to work right away and elected student representatives to be on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) committee,” said Kinard. “The LCME is over medical school accreditations so the nominees that we put forth will be the students that will accompany the rest of the LCME committee on site visits and help weigh in on major decisions. This was a serious role that all five of us had to weigh in on and put forth the best candidates.”

The AAMC leads and serves the academic medicine community to improve the health of people everywhere. Founded in 1876 and based in Washington, D.C., the AAMC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations, according to the AAMC website.

The AAMC also houses the American Medical College Application Service® (AMCAS®), which is a centralized medical school application processing service. Most U.S. medical schools use AMCAS as the primary application method for their first-year entering classes.