AMSA/GLMA LGBT Health Achievement Award

The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) and the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) established the LGBT Health Achievement Award in 1999 to recognize a medical school, student group, or individual student for exemplary achievement in advocating the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health issues or concerns within their medical school and medical centers.

AMSA has supported LGBT issues since the inception of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People in Medicine task force, which was formed in 1976 as AMSA's first advocacy task force. Now referred to as the Advocacy Committee on LGBT People in Medicine (LGBTPM), AMSA continues its dedication to advocacy and remains the only national student organization dedicated to providing resources for LGBT medical students. In addition to offering support for medical students, LGBTPM's mission includes advocating on the behalf of LGBT patients and educating the wider medical community on issues specific to the LGBT community.

GLMA is a national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender physicians, house staff, medical students, and their supporters who are dedicated to maximizing the quality of health and health services for LGBT people, to promoting full civil rights, and to fostering a professional climate in which its diverse members can achieve their full potential. Now recognized and included by the AMA in its Specialty and Service Society, GLMA strives to achieve its goals by educating health care professionals about unique health care needs of LGBT people, helping to develop equitable health care policy, promoting relevant research in health, and supporting our members who are challenged by discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

With the joint sponsorship of this award, AMSA and GLMA solidify a strong commitment to advocacy for LGBT health concerns within medical education.

The LGBT Health Achievement Award will be presented at AMSA's national convention in the spring, as well as at GLMA's annual meeting in the fall. The honored medical student or representative of the student group or medical school will be given the opportunity to receive this award at both conferences. After receiving a plaque in recognition of the GLMA/AMSA LGBT Health Achievement Award, the awardee will have a story describing their accomplishments appear in AMSA's magazine The New Physician and the quarterly GLMA Report. The award will also provide a travel scholarship for attending both the AMSA and GLMA conventions, depending on the amount of funding available that year.

The selection process will be a blind review and the selection committee will be comprised of the Student Board Members of the GLMA, the GLMA Director of Public Policy, the National Chair and Coordinators of the LGBT Health Action Committee, and the AMSA Director of Student Programming.

Upon recognition, recipients of the LGBT Health Achievement Award are encouraged to create a "project-in-a-box" version of their most successful project which has helped to educate their peers about LGBT health concerns or the challenges LGBT medical students face. This "project-in-a-box" will then be added to LGBT Health's Project Ideas page so that other LGBTPM chapters around the nation can bring this successful idea to their own schools.

HOW DO I APPLY?

Applications for the LGBT Health Achievement Award will be accepted no later than December 31, 2007 and the selection process will follow during the months prior to the AMSA national convention in March. The nomination process is simple and we encourage all students to apply!

For more information, email LGBT Health's National Leadership.