Avanthi Jayaweera is a fourth-year medical student at VCU School of Medicine. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) as the Vice President for Leadership Development. Prior to this role, she served as the 2018 AMSA Education and Advocacy Fellow where she spent a year at the AMSA National Headquarters outside of Washington, DC to work closely with medical students on major educational programming and advocacy initiatives related to gun violence prevention, civic engagement, access to medicines, and healthcare for all. As the AMSA Fellow, she hosted multiple advocacy skills workshops in medical schools across the country to train students on how to be effective advocates for patients. She also organized AMSA’s Advocacy Leadership Summit to engage students in initiatives related to lowering drug prices and addressing the alarming influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medical education and public policy. Now that she has returned to VCU, she is designing an advocacy and leadership curriculum to prepare medical trainees to challenge systemic barriers to health as the next generation of physician leaders. Avanthi plans to apply for family medicine residency.
