The Student Osteopathic Medical Association is a remarkable organization led by enthusiastic students. It is an organization that recognizes the we all live in a diverse world where we will all encounter the global issues of ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender. These topics will also impact our professional lives and the need for cultural diversity and awareness in medicine needs to start with us.

First our medical community needs to be diverse in order to satisfy the diverse population it needs to serve. Working with Pre-SOMA and chapter leaders we encourage people of all different backgrounds to join our medical community in efforts to make our medical population more representative of the world population.

Our osteopathic principles remind us to look at a person as a whole. Ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender are all components of an individual. As future physicians we need to be culturally competent in order to really understand our patients and serve them with best care possible. This can be accomplished by incorporating the cultural topics into programming and events.

I am extremely excited to work with all of you this year and make advances in the issues pertaining to minority affairs. Please feel free to contact me with questions or suggestions. Lets have a great year!

Gloria Lopez
2010-2011 Minority Affairs Director
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