American Medical Student Association

Community & Environmental Health

Collaborative Activism Towards the Promotion of
Health! Education, Policy, Action

Join us in improving public health education at your school and advancing the health of your community through policy action. The Community and Environmental Health Action Committee is dedicated to:

• Helping medical & premedical students educate their schools & communities about important public health issues
• Enabling medical & premedical students to influence debate about & achieve progress towards the Healthy People 2020 goals
• Empowering chapters to develop & execute local public health projects
• Providing guidance & training in public health & public health careers

Get Involved

• Participate in CEH's Community on Inspiration Exchange
  Join us on AMSA's member networking portal. Keep an eye out on the Inspiration Exchange for updates and action alerts on issues relating to public health and the environment.

• National Primary Care Week (October 7-11, 2013)
  National Primary Care Week (NPCW) is an annual event to highlight the importance of primary care and bring health care professionals together to discuss and learn about generalist and interdisciplinary health care, particularly its impact on and importance to underserved populations.

• Food Day (October 24, 2012)
  The purpose of Food Day is to reduce diet-related disease by promoting healthy foods, support sustainable farms and cut subsidies to big agribusiness, expand access to food and alleviate hunger, protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms, and promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids. AMSA’s goals are also to education and empowerment students to address these issues in their local communities. See how you can engage your local community.

• KNObesity - Because You Have to KNow Obesity!
  The AMSA KNObesity steering committee is dedicated to addressing the complex, multifaceted obesity epidemic through advocacy, education, research and engagement.

• CHIT Chat Webinar Series
  Join us for our monthly webinar of the Community Healers Inspiring Tomorrow (CHIT) Chat series, which will run throughout the academic year on preventive medicine topics.

• Public Health Scholars Program (Fall 2012-Spring 2013)
  The Public Health Scholars Program teaches AMSA members how to effectively work with their local community, as well as develop, implement and evaluate a local project. The program includes an in-person training session in community engagement for social justice, as well as program planning and evaluation. Students then start a year-long community engagement project in their local area, which could include their medical school class, academic institution, local community or even an issue-based national community.

• AMSA's Legislative Action Center
  Community and Environmental Health works with national leaders to promote public health issues through legislative and issue based advocacy. Current issues include defending medicare and medicaid in the current budget negotiations, reserving antibiotic use for medical treatment, and maintaining environmental legislation and oversight to prevent future disasters such as the BP Gulf Spill. Check out our action center to contact your elected representatives about these issues.