Michael G. Knight, a fourth-year medical student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, has been elected the Student National Medical Association president, while School of Medicine student Demetra Gibson was elected national secretary.
As president, Knight will serve as the lead programmatic coordinator and official spokesperson for the SNMA, overseeing 14 national committees with projects and initiatives to be implemented by more than 250 medical schools and undergraduate chapters across the country.
While at the Lerner College of Medicine, Knight has organized various programs, including the Journey to the Medical Profession and Passport to Manhood youth mentoring initiatives. He also leads national SNMA efforts to increase the pipeline of underrepresented minority physicians, cultural competency in medical education and HIV/AIDS awareness in minority communities with the Greater Than AIDS initiative.
Gibson is currently between her third and fourth year at the School of Medicine. Throughout her time at Case Western Reserve University, she has served as an admissions committee student interviewer, social chair and Class of 2012 representative on the Committee of Student Representation, chapter president of SNMA; HIV tester at the Cuyahoga County Jail and volunteer in numerous health fairs. Gibson has taken a one-year leave of absence from CWRU to pursue a Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University. She will return to CWRU to complete her fourth year of medical school.