Garcia Leadership & Advocacy Seminar (G.L.A.S.) 2008

Thanks to all officers and board members, LMSA, and the University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine for their support in hosting G.LA.S. 2008. Additionally, we thank Mark S. Pecker, MD from Cornell Weill Medical College, Dept. of Medicine for his continued support. The seminar was a success, bringing together the NNLAMS leadership to discuss our yearly projections.

Dates: August 1-3, 2008

Location: University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine

Main Focus: GLAS will consit of keynote addresses, leadership presentations, skill building, and advocacy workshops. This year we proudly integrate our seminar with the LMSA Leadership Conference and continue the tradition of unity among the Latino medical student leaders. The seminar is design to equip our board members and officers with the proper tools to have a successful year with NNLAMS and beyond. It also provides a venue to establish our plans and goals for the 2008-09 academic year.

The Dr. Garcia Leadership & Advocacy Seminar (G.L.A.S), led by the NNLAMS, is designed to cultivate and develop the leadership, organizational, and advocacy skills of recognized Latino medical student leaders from across the United States. This seminar formally addresses the lack of leadership diversity in the health care workforce by investing early in the career of Latino physician leaders. The seminar is in its ninth year of implementation. GLAS will consist of keynote addresses, leadership presentations, skill building, and advocacy workshops led by experts, and networking opportunities.

GLAS History: The Garcia Leadership Development Workshop was developed and founded in 2000. The program has been supported by multiple streams of financial support which have included: National Institute of Health, National Health Service Corp, Office of the President at the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, California Endowment Fund, UCLA. The seminar has undergone a series of name changes from GLDW to GLDS (Garcia Leadership Development Leadership Seminar). The current name GLAS represents the program's maturation and development to include a formalized advocacy skills component.

Upon its founding GLAS was hosted at Dr. Garcia's former medical school UTMB - Galveston for the first two years. It was then to be hosted at away academic health institutions throughout the country with the plans for its return every other year to UTMB - Galveston. This scheduling format gave each region of Latino medical student organizations an opportunity to share the responsibility of hosting the event. Since inception of the program it has been held three times at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, once at University of California Los Angeles, Duke University, and Mt. Sinai in NYC.

Long Term Vision: We strive to develop effective Latino(a) physician leaders in healthcare so that they may become effective patient advocates, physician leaders in government, the private sector, and the community.