Donna Tran, Immediate Past President
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Hello, my name is Donna Tran. I am an MD student at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and obtained my MPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, respectively. Outside of school, I serve as the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA) National Immediate Past President and Medical Student Representative of the Association for College Psychiatry. Previously, I was the 2020 – 2023 APAMSA National President and a U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Health Policy Intern. Before medical school, I obtained my B.S. Neurobiology and B.A. Psychology from University of California, Davis and worked as a Stanford University and UCSF clinical researcher, improving quality of life and cognitive function and addressing psychological illnesses in women and older adults. For research, I focus on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) minority issues, public mental health/psychiatry, leadership and academic medicine, and older adults and cognitive aging. In my free time, I enjoys rock climbing, my French bulldog (Boba Princess), and TED Talks, particularly as a past TEDx Speaker myself in 2020 “Meaning in Cancer”.
Anti-Asian Racism Toolkit
Dear APAMSA family:
In honor of the one year anniversary of the tragedy in Atlanta, GA on March 16, 2021 – we remember the lives of those lost. We also recognize that more action is needed, and APAMSA is committed to advocating for our members and our communities in years to come.
Inspired by your advocacy, we released our National APAMSA Anti-Asian Racism Toolkit one year ago today.
This toolkit, intended to guide individuals and chapters to advocate within their institutions and to collaborate for large-scale change, includes:
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Chapter resources
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Social media infographics
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Partner organizations and contacts
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Template letter for requesting institutional support, including National APAMSA-endorsed demands
…and will be continually updated in response to your needs and national events.
Follow this link to request access to the Toolkit.
Not sure how to get started? We’ll be holding a workshop on how to apply these tools at your institution – date/time to be announced soon!
In solidarity,
Your National APAMSA Board
2020-2021 National Board
Executive Board
Tiffany Cheng
External Affairs Vice President
University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine
externalvp@apamsa.org
Branch Directors
Jooeun ‘Jay’ Kang
AAPI Advocacy Director
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
aapi-advocacy@apamsa.org
Daniel Pham
Rapid Response Director
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
rapidresponse@apamsa.org
Eun Ah Cho (Vivian Lou)
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Director
Stanford University School of Medicine
nhpidirector@apamsa.org
Syeda Akila Li
South Asian Director
University of Illinois College of Medicine
sadirector@apamsa.org
Diane Wei
Premed APAMSA Director
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Science
premed@apamsa.org
Chiara Macaraig
Premed APAMSA Director
Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
premed@apamsa.org
Clarine Long
Announcements Director
Ohio State University College of Medicine
announcements@apamsa.org
Victoria Cegielski
Social Media Director
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
socialmedia@apamsa.org
Kathleen Dinh
Co-Sponsorship Director
Michigan State University
College of Human Medicine
sponsorship@apamsa.org
Sang Min Lee
National Conference Chair
The Ohio State University College of Medicine
sangmin.lee@osumc.edu
Tiffany Kar Guan
National Conference Chair
The Ohio State University College of Medicine
tiffany.guan@osumc.edu
Membership Regional Directors
Rod Carlo Columbres
Region 4 Director
William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine
region4@apamsa.org
Past National Boards
COVID-19 through an Asian American Perspective
Meet the Authors
Eileen Li (MS1 University of Washington)
“So much of contemporary Asian American identity discourse hyperfixates on media representation (or lack thereof), obscuring the fact that the term “Asian American” itself has radical roots in anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and anti-colonialism. I wanted to work on a project that acknowledges that history, how even within such a diverse category of “Asian American”, we’ve been racialized by the same institutions that the U.S. has used to uphold white supremacy, anti-Blackness, settler colonialism, and imperialism. That history has produced the conditions for not only the anti-Asian racism and xenophobia we’re seeing currently, but also the extremely high mortality rates from COVID-19 seen throughout Black, Brown, Indigenous, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. If we can recognize our historical roles as victims, benefactors, and perpetrators of violence, we can better center our most marginalized communities and fight for the changes necessary to protect us all."
Grace Chung (MS3 Emory University)
“Throughout medical school, I found myself often wanting more from discussions surrounding diversity and racism. I felt that, too often, the conversation stopped at recognizing bias and racial disparities in healthcare but seldom delved into the pervasiveness of systemic oppression throughout history and its impact present day. My hope with this timeline is to share about Asian American history and provide a greater (historical) foundation for advocacy.”
Jungsoo Chang (MS3 Yale University)
“I came to america when I was nine years old, and after many years of navigating the immigration process, I became an American citizen during medical school. Nearly every day in my rotations I had patients ask me where I was “really from” or “when I am going back” which reinforced to me that I would always be alien in America no matter where I considered home. This historical timeline is important to me as it shows that while pandemic is used as the latest excuse to legitimize discrimination, history shows us that this is not new.”
Angel Xiao (MS3 Emory University)
“As an immigrant, recent “resident alien” green card holder, and medical student, I am acutely aware of the xenophobia that colors the current covid-19 pandemic. With this timeline, I hope to spark conversation on how these attitudes of exclusion and “fear of the foreigner” have been longstanding and underly a legislative and systemic form of discrimination that continues to manifest in my day to day as an Asian American. My hope is that we can learn from our history in order to advocate for our future.”
Tej Ganti, MD
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Tej Ganti, MD is a Maryland native who completed an undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University and medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine. As a medical student, Tej served on the national board and national executive board of APAMSA. Now an ob/gyn resident at Tower Health Reading Hospital, Tej continues to enjoy mentoring medical students and advocating for underrepresented communities.
Hilary Lin, MD
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Hillary Lin, MD is an internal medicine physician and entrepreneur. She served on the APAMSA National Board for several years acting as Hepatitis B Conference Director, Cancer Director, Alumni Director, and Strategy Director before joining the Alumni Advisory Board. Hillary attended Stanford for her B.S in Biology, M.D., and her internal medicine residency. She is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Curio, a mental health startup. She is passionate about human behavior and helping people improve their performance as well as their mental wellbeing by building emotional skills and strength.
Robert Hsu, MD
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Robert Hsu, MD is a hematology/oncology fellow at University of Southern California. He received his MD at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and did Internal Medicine residency at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He served on APAMSA’s National Board for 4 years from 2012-2016 including serving as National Vice President and served as the local chapter president at Tulane. During his time at Tulane with APAMSA, he helped with running Hepatitis B/C health fairs and education events at the West Bank working with the Vietnamese community and organizing Be the Match bone marrow drives along with bringing speakers to discuss APIA issues in New Orleans. Since his time at Tulane, he has continued to work with immigrant and APIA community through his experiences in residency, medical school, and AmeriCorps (which he did for two years after college) and is focused on bringing awareness to many of the socioeconomic barriers faced in these communities in the context of the physician-patient relationship. Robert’s interests also include oncology research focusing on global cancer databases, cancer disparities, and targeted therapies, in particular he hopes to do further research on cancer disparities within the APIA community. During his free time, Robert enjoys marathon running; he has run 20 full marathons and nearly 100 half marathons.
Kevin Ho, DO
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Kevin Hon is a current PGY-2 Emergency Medicine resident and New York-Presbyterian Queens. He hails from Southern California where he also completed his degree at Western University of Health Sciences COMP. He has been involved with APAMSA since his 3rd year of medical school where he served as both a Regional Director and as Pre-Medical Director. He concluded his medical student involvement as Membership Vice President up until his start of residency. Taking leadership and representation beyond APAMSA, he also serves on the SAEM membership and wellness committees. While EM is his passion, he takes pride in learning more about medical simulation, education, and mentoring. In his spare time, you can find him exploring New York City, training for or volunteering at races around NYC, or practicing his golf swing.
Justin Nguyen, DO, MPH
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Dr. Justin Nguyen is currently a psychiatry resident at Community Memorial Health System in Ventura County, California. He served as APAMSA’s first Resolutions Director in 2017-2018 and then served as Advocacy Vice President from 2018-2020.
Justin received his bachelor’s degree in psychobiology at UCLA. As an undergraduate student, he engaged in student activism as part of the Vietnamese Student Union and also oversaw programs that promoted recruitment of students of color into higher education as a member of the Student-Initiated Outreach Committee. He then completed both his medical degree and master’s in public health at Touro University California, where in addition to being part of APAMSA, he was also deeply involved with the California Physicians Alliance (CaPA). After graduating from medical school, Justin completed a transitional year residency in Ocala, Florida before returning to California. He enjoys reading about history, politics, psychology, and personality theory, and in his free time also watches anime, plays video games, listens to music, and visits breweries/wineries.
Nancy Dong, MD
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Nancy Dong is a proud alumni of the APAMSA organization. In her first year of medical school, she met the APAMSA family at the Las Vegas national conference and was hooked. From there, she picked up leadership positions as Northeast Regional Director (2014-2016), Local Chapter President (2015-2016), and Membership Co-Director (2017-2018). She is passionate about advocating for Asian and Asian-American communities, with a particular interest in teaching, professional development, and mental health. Nancy is currently a psychiatry resident at Northwell Zucker Hillside Hospital. She is curious about racial/ethnic disparities, schizophrenia, consult liaison psychiatry, medical education, and innovative QI.