Eastern Virginia Medical School student recognized as an outstanding leader in medicine by the AMA Foundation

4 March 2010
AMA Press Release

(Chicago, IL) – Sachin "Sunny" Jha, MS, a student at Eastern Virginia Medical School, has been named a recipient of the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2010 Leadership Award. This award provides medical students, residents/fellows and early career physicians from around the country with special training to develop their skills as future leaders in organized medicine and community affairs.

The AMA Foundation will honor 30 individuals with the award at its annual Excellence in Medicine Awards ceremony on March 1, 2010 in Washington D.C. Presented in association with Pfizer Inc, recipients of the award are recognized for demonstrating outstanding non-clinical leadership skills in advocacy, community service and education. Mr. Jha is one of only 20 medical students in the nation to receive a leadership award.

Sunny Jha is currently a second-year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) with a diverse leadership background. He is a member of the AMPAC Student Advisory Board, serves as a Student Council Executive, and is a member of the AAMC Organization of Student Representatives. Mr. Jha recently coordinated a group of fourth-year medical students in forming a new student-run free clinic at EVMS and created an internship program between the Chesapeake Care Clinic and EVMS. He is a founding member of the Society of Global Health Researchers and has completed research projects at Massachusetts General Hospital, the World Health Organization, UCSF, and EVMS. As an undergraduate at Berkeley, he led the Suitcase Clinic, an acute care free medical clinic, and served as a commissioner on the City of Berkeley’s Community Health Commission.

“At this critical time in our nation’s health system reform efforts, encouraging leadership in the medical profession is more important than ever,” said Richard Hovland, President of the AMA Foundation. “I am confident that these exceptional individuals will provide a strong voice in the medical community to improve health care delivery in the United States.”

The AMA Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt foundation, is the philanthropic arm of the American Medical Association and is committed to improving the health of Americans through support of quality programs in public health and medical education. Some of the AMA Foundation’s current programs include grant programs for free clinics and healthy lifestyles projects, medical student scholarships and health literacy initiatives. Visit http://www.amafoundation.org to learn more.

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For more information, please contact: Dina Lindenberg
AMA Foundation
dina.lindenberg@ama-assn.org  
312 | 464-4193