Eleanor Renteria

What inspired you to join AMSA?

I joined AMSA because I wanted to keep learning skills that could directly improve my patients’ experience. Coming from a prehospital background as a 911 EMT, I had a working understanding of trauma-informed care in the field, but I recognized a gap in my knowledge of how those principles translate into the clinical hospital setting. The trauma informed care course through the AMSA Scholars Program was my entry point into AMSA and it filled that gap in a way I had been unable to find elsewhere. More than anything, I want my future patients to leave our clinical encounters with a clearer understanding of their own health and feeling like they were part of the process, not just recipients of it. AMSA felt like the right community to help me build toward that.

What motivated you to become a national leader or volunteer?

The conversations I had throughout the TIC course were some of the best seminar-based discussions I have had in a class setting in years. As those conversations unfolded, I found myself thinking about perspectives and experiences that the curriculum had not yet had the chance to incorporate, and I knew I wanted to be part of developing it further. What I want most as a course director Is for students to leave with something they can carry into every part of their lives, because trauma-informed care belongs in the clinic, at the bedside, in the relationships they build with patients over time, and in the way we treat the people around us every day.

Skills

I have extensive experience in academic writing, editing, and communications through my work as founder and Editor-in-Chief of Praxis: A Scholarship Journal of Lived Experience, where I have built peer review infrastructure, trained reviewers and editors, and developed outreach materials for faculty across disciplines. My research background includes working with large dataset analysis using R and Python, survey instrument development, and scientific writing for academic audiences. I also have direct experience in curriculum and training development, having designed reviewer and editor training modules, built course materials in Google Classroom.

External Affiliations

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
• American Physician Scientists Association (APSA)
• Minorities in Medicine at ASU
• Black Medical Student Association at ASU