Region 4 Leaders

Rana Yehia, Chair
University of Florida

I am extremely excited about serving you as region chair. I am a second year medical student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. I was originally born in Lebanon, but I grew up in Florida. I enjoy traveling and experiencing other cultures, running and exercising, and spending quality time with my family and friends.

My goals for the upcoming year fall under 5 categories: community service, leadership, involvement, membership, and communication. These goals include:

1. Community Service
   • Organizing a region wide fundraiser to benefit the National Service Project, Healthy Lifestyles to Reduce Obesity
   • Organizing a service project at the region meeting
2. Leadership
   • Increasing organization, enthusiasm, and teamwork within the region
   • Training and encouraging new leadership within the region
3. Involvement
   • Informing members about leadership, scholarship, community service, etc. opportunities within the AMA
   • Providing members with the resources for resolution writing, lobbying legislation, and other advocacy programs
   • Organizing a region wide letter writing campaign that encourages members to write their legislators
4. Membership
   • Initiating fall and spring membership drives that target both first and fourth year medical students
   • Increasing participation and attendance at region wide events
5. Communication
   • Maintaining the Region 4 listserv
   • Establishing a forum for chapters to share ideas about community service projects, advocacy programs, membership drives, etc.

I look forward to working with you in making these goals a reality. If you have any questions, concerns or ideas please feel free to contact me. The Region 4 executive board is anticipating a fun and exciting year.

Travis Blalock, Vice Chair
Mercer University School of Medicine

First and foremost, I want to thank each and everyone of you for this opportunity to serve. I am ecstatic that I have the opportunity to work with a region that is as highly motivated and exciting as Region 4.

I am currently a 3rd year student at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. I grew up in the outskirts of Atlanta in the small town of Dallas, GA. I then proceeded to Emory University in Atlanta to graduate with a degree in Religion with an extensive focus on ethics.

I am very excited about the direction Region 4 is going and wholeheartedly am on the same page with Rana in regards to the direction that we are heading. My personal thoughts on the progress of the AMA-MSS are that we must begin to address medical student issues. When we attend meetings, many
times we affirm and address general medical issues that must be addressed. This is an important aspect of our AMA-MSS and I would not have you believe any different. However, it is my thought that many times we fail to address those issues that are most immediate to us, those being issues regarding medical education. I feel that we must work more diligently to address medical AND educational issues to be more effective advocates all patients. I only hope that I might be of help in realizing these goals so that we can not only impact the lives of our patients, but also impact the medical students who will follow in our footsteps.

Rosiland Harrington

I am in my second year at Emory and have been a member of the AMA-MSS from the beginning. I became actively involved last spring, when I was elected Treasurer for the Emory Chapter and was also selected to represent our school as Delegate at the National Conference in Chicago. Besides being the Secretary-Treasurer to Region IV this year, I am also a member if the 2005-6 AMA MSS Regional Infrastructure Task Force (RIT Force). I am interested in getting involved in helping to create a better medical system in this country and I believe the AMA is a strong organization that can propel our government into action. Besides AMA-MSS, I am also interested in International Medicine and plan to do go Haiti for spring break to help start a clinic to be run by Emory School of Medicine.