Alexa Mieses Honored by AAMC with Herbert W. Nickens Award
ISMMS student among five selected for the national scholarship
Alexa Mieses, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) MD/MPH Candidate, Class of 2016 was one of five students to be honored with the Herbert W. Nickens Award at the 2014 Association of American Medical Colleges National Meeting.
The annual award scholarships are given out to students entering their third year of medical school who have shown leadership in efforts to eliminate inequities in medical education and health care, and in addressing educational, societal and health care needs of racial and ethnic minorities.
“Incorporating public health knowledge into patient care, addressing the health needs of my community, and mentoring are things that I am extremely dedicated to and passionate about,” said Ms. Mieses. “To be nationally recognized by the AAMC for the work I do for the underserved and increasing diversity in medicine is such a tremendous honor.”
Among the many activities Ms. Mieses has been involved with during her time at ISMMS, she has served as a clinic manager and Spanish interpreter for EHHOP, the student-run clinic serving uninsured patients of East Harlem; worked as a chronic care student clinician, serving as the primary care provider to the clinic’s chronically ill patients; raised awareness about disparities in medical education as editor-in-chief of The Rossi, a student-run medical education newsletter; and promoted the values of primary care as co-president of the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) from 2013 to 2014.
Ms. Mieses is also strongly involved in mentorship programs, working with Mentoring in Medicine, Inc. since 2007 and working extensively with the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs at Mount Sinai to mentor underrepresented minority premedical students.
In addition to all the work she does within ISMMS, in 2013, in an effort to mentor on a larger scale, Alexa published her first book, The Heartbeat of Success, a medical school admissions guide for first-generation aspiring physicians and also blogs regularly for Medscape/WebMD.
Ms. Mieses plans to become a primary care physician-scholar and work with underserved communities similar to her own.