Medical Student Contributing Writer
TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine
Charna Kinard is a first-year medical student at the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine in Fort Worth. Originally from the South Side of Chicago, Kinard attended Whitney Young Magnet High School and Loyola University Chicago, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a Biology and Dance double minor. She also completed the MEDPREP post-baccalaureate program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Currently, Kinard is President of the TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine Student National Medical Association (SNMA) and Physician Outreach Coordinator for the Oncology Interest Group at the School of Medicine. She is pursuing research that applies the nanomaterial graphene for cancer drug delivery. Kinard is cognizant of the health disparities that people of color experience and hopes to address these issues as a physician. She would like to serve lower socioeconomic communities of color to increase medical literacy and preventative practices.
Read more to find out how three seemingly straightforward words, for medical student Charna Kinard, represented a spectrum of emotions, feelings and connotations in the setting of national news regarding policing and the Black Lives Matter movement and how this has shaped her path towards physicianship.
Medical student Joaquin Zetina details a poignant example, illustrating the often overlooked and nuanced barriers and adversities faced by immigrant students that can shape their perspectives of themselves as well as society.
Medical student Vidya Lala vividly describes her interpretation of the often cited terms black body and black lives. Read more to find out what these terms mean to her.
The year 2020 has already redefined the social landscape through a pandemic and massive progressive social movements. Mosaic in Medicine’s mission and purpose rings as true as when it was started, bolstered by a renewed vigor.
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
Albany Medical College
A current Internal Medicine/Pediatrics resident at Stony Brook University Hospital. I was born and raised in Southern California. Being a 1st generation Mexican-American and a 1st generation medical student has provided me the opportunity to be thrusted into the culture of medicine but also left me feeling like an outsider. I believe Mosaic in Medicine has the potential to expand and strengthen medical culture and education by illuminating the stories, adversities and passions that encompass experiences that stretch far beyond race or creed. I want Mosaic in Medicine to be a platform in which we can relate to, inspire, and educate one another by showing that no one is truly an outsider in the medical community; we are all just pieces of different shapes and colors that add to the same whole.
