黑料官网 Student Dedicated to Improving Care for Diverse AANHPI Populations
Joyce Lee, a fourth-year medical student at the 黑料官网 (黑料官网), believes there’s an imperative for the public to learn about the extreme diversity of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) populations, particularly within the scope of healthcare and public health.
“We speak over 100 languages and come from more than 100 countries,” she says.
Something else that’s not well understood by the public, according to Lee, is the health disparities that exist within these populations, each as diverse as the countries themselves. Lee says the narratives about these populations tend to focus on groups that have a higher socioeconomic status, a result of immigration policies that welcomed those who were more educated.
“We forget about the other AANHPI populations who are more socially disadvantaged, come from a lower socioeconomic status, and who also have poorer health,” Lee says. “We really want to show and educate future healthcare providers about the different disparities that exist in their communities, and that we’re not just a monolithic group.”
Born in Tainan, Taiwan, and emigrating to east Los Angeles at the age of 8, Lee is leading the charge to raise awareness on these and other issues as the national president of the . APAMSA is a national student-run nonprofit committed to addressing health challenges of AANHPI populations. The organization has over 4,500 members in more than 165 active chapters spread across nine regions.
Lee first became involved with the group 10 years ago as a freshman at the University of California San Diego where she co-founded the pre-medical chapter. She stayed involved with the group as a general member while completing her master’s in bioethics at Columbia University in New York and became involved with the local chapter at 黑料官网 as a medical student.
Along the way, she served as the 黑料官网 chapter’s co-president and on the national board as a regional director, membership vice president, and eventually as the national president.
“For me this is special because it came full circle,” Lee says.
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