Sirapa (Fern) Vichaikul is a rising third-year medical student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and immigrated to the U.S. when she was 16. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2022 and served as a National Health Corps (AmeriCorps) member with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Street Medicine during her gap year. In that role, she piloted a patient navigation program to improve access to specialty care for individuals experiencing homelessness.

Fern is passionate about advocating for underserved populations and has a particular interest in mental health, addiction medicine, food insecurity, and housing insecurity. Through her involvement as a previous local APAMSA chapter president, she has worked to understand mental health-seeking behaviors in the AANHPI community through community education and research. Believing in a holistic approach to healthcare, she hopes to integrate her love for cooking and baking to promote food as medicine and advocate for more equitable food access. She plans to leverage her experiences and training in the Medical Partners in Public Health Certificate Program to develop population-based interventions and quality improvement projects to help reduce health disparity in underserved communities.