Chris Jones
Christopher Jones, a fourth-year medical student a UCSF, was elected national parliamentarian of the Student National Medical Association (SNMA) at the 43rd SNMA Annual Medical Education Conference held in New York recently.
The conference attracted underrepresented medical students and professionals who gather to attend a wide range of educational and networking events. It is consistently the largest gathering of underrepresented minority medical students at any time of the year in any place in the nation, according to SNMA.
"The Student National Medical Association has been instrumental in nurturing and developing me into the student-physician that I am today,” said Jones.
Founded in 1964 by medical students from Howard University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College, SNMA is the nation’s oldest and largest, independent, student-run organization focused on the needs and concerns of medical students of color. With chapters across the country, SNMA membership includes more than 7,000 medical students, pre-medical students and physicians.
Jones has been actively involved in SNMA throughout his medical school career. He organized the SNMA-sponsored activities movie series during Black History Month. Jones leveraged SNMA’s reach to communicate with underrepresented in medicine students.
Jones has been working with youth in San Francisco’s Visitation Valley and BayView Hunter's Point neighborhoods for several years. “A classmate and I started a group that focuses on helping at-risk youth to formulate and achieve their life goals through mentorship," he said.
At UCSF, Jones is a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee for Academic Diversity, which works to identify, implement and evaluate efforts to promote diversity among UCSF faculty, students and trainees and monitors progress toward stated goals. Among the goals identified in the UCSF Strategic Plan is to “educate, train and employ a diverse faculty, staff and student body.”
Jones was born and raised in Stockton, CA and graduated from Saint Mary’s High School. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of California, Davis in biochemistry and molecular biology. While in college, Jones was a member of the football team, received academic All-American honors. Jones also earned the highest possible scholastic honor from UC Davis, the University medal. Jones plans to pursue a career in orthopedic surgery.
SNMA is dedicated to increasing the number of African-American, Latino and other underrepresented students of color entering and completing medical school and to assisting in the eradication of racial and ethnic health disparities. SNMA community service and mentoring programs provide science appreciation, health care education, mentoring, and academic enrichment to elementary, junior high school, high school and college students interested in pursuing health-related careers.
