Fourth-year student named to Board of Directors of Southern Medical Association

Natalie Weiss wanted to stay up-to-date with the latest recent advancements in medicine and network with other like-minded people in the field, so the fourth-year student at Tulane University School of Medicine got involved with the Southern Medical Association (SMA). She applied for a position on the education committee and helped launch a working group specifically geared to physicians-in-training. Those efforts led to Weiss being appointed to the SMA Board of Directors as Chair of the Physicians-In-Training Committee, making her the youngest-ever member of the association’s board.

“It’s such an amazing honor to be selected for this position and to be able to bring the concerns of my peers to the leadership of the Southern Medical Association,” said Weiss. “Students now have different challenges than past generations. We are interacting with technology more, trying to address health inequities, and responding to overall changes in the medical field.”

Weiss hopes her involvement with the SMA will encourage her fellow students to join networks and associations that will help them grow their careers and learn about healthcare issues that might not come up in the classroom.

“I think sometimes we get in this clinical bubble where we’re learning about medicine and we become blind to all of these issues that are also present in our practice,” Weiss said. “Exposure to organized medicine is one of many medical-adjacent experiences that are available to us as students and can augment our medical careers.”