Two Fort Worth Medical Students Elected to SNMA National Board of Directors
Charna Kinard will serve as Academic Affairs Committee Co-Chair,and Toni Igbokidi will be National Treasurer on the Student National Medical Association's Board of Directors. Both attend the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
FORT WORTH – Two Burnett School of Medicine students were elected to leadership roles on the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) Board of Directors.
Charna Kinard, a fourth-year medical student, will serve as Academic Affairs Committee Co-Chair, and Toni Igbokidi, a third-year medical student, was appointed National Treasurer at the 2022 SNMA Annual Medical Education Conference (AMEC) in April.
SNMA is the nation’s oldest and largest independent, student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns of students of color who are underrepresented in medicine. SNMA has more than 150 chapters across the nation with a membership of more than 7,000 medical students, pre-medical students, and physicians.
About Charna Kinard
Charna Kinard, MS-4, was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. She attended Loyola University Chicago, where she received her Bachelors of Arts in Economics, with minors in Biology and Dance. She later attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale to complete the post baccalaureate program MEDPREP.
Kinard is passionate about student advocacy in medical education and is involved with the AAMC Organization of Student Representatives where she provides the student voice to numerous AAMC stakeholder committees.
She is also deliberate about mentorship and community outreach, leading numerous collaborative projects with local healthcare systems. She will be applying to general surgery residencies this fall, with the career goal of becoming an academic general surgeon with an interest in restorative medical education to cultivate effective community outreach and relationships. In her spare time, Kinard can be found binge-watching anime, playing videogames on Nintendo Switch or spending time with loved ones.
About Antonio Igbokidi
Igbokidi, MS-3, graduated from the University of Arkansas with degrees in Biology and African American Studies and is complimenting his current medical education with a masters in Bioethics from Creighton University.
Igbokidi said he believes that true advocacy and positive change stems from the community level upwards. He started an initiative called the Barbershop Talk Therapy Project, designed to integrate mental health professionals into the barbershop in order to heal and de-stigmatize mental health in men of color. He is passionate about integrating community health in his role as a future physician to uplift the voiceless and marginalized.
Igbokidi said it is imperative that we “lift as we climb” by giving back to the community, uplifting the people from our community and creating a healthy space for people of color to be healed, to belong and to thrive.
About the Burnett School of Medicine
The Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth’s M.D. school, opened with a class of 60 students in July 2019. The allopathic medical school was formed in 2015. The Burnett School of Medicine’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars® uniquely positions the school to radically transform medical education, improving care for generations.