Join AMSA Education & Advocacy Fellow Dr. Alison Case as she visits AMSA Chapters across the country! Alison has recently returned from her Midwest tour visiting AMSA chapters, rallying against global AIDS relief funding cuts, and offering advocacy workshops on meeting with elected officials.
Two weeks ago, AMSA’s Education and Advocacy Fellow, Alison Case, was on the road visiting chapters across the Midwest and offering advocacy workshops on meeting with elected officials. The workshops focused on planning and prepping for a legislative visit, making an agenda, framing, and designing a rock solid ask.
Trainings were held at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CRWU SOM) in Cleveland, OH, as well as Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Indianapolis, IN.
At CWRU SOM the workshop focused on one of AMSA’s active campaigns–the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act. This is a bill that will help us remove the paywalls we encounter when trying to review research by making articles reporting on publicly funded research freely accessible online. Increased access means increased innovation as knowledge becomes available for all (more info from our partner organization Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) here!).
At Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine the workshop was focused on the federal ban on funding for syringe exchange programs. This is a particularly important issue for people in Indiana as Southern Indiana has recently experienced outbreaks of HIV and Hepatitis C related to injection drug use. Syringe exchange programs are an effective means of preventing the spread of these diseases in addition to providing rehabilitation services and access to primary care for participants.
After the workshop each respective crew headed downtown to their Senator’s offices (In Cleveland, Senator Sherrod Brown(D); in Indianapolis Senators Coats (R) and Donnelly (D)) office to meet with staff and make their asks.
Both meetings were a great success! Students will continue to follow up with their Senators on these issues this fall–great work to all of the students who came out for their first legislative visit!
And a big thank you to the following students who helped to organize these workshops and visits!
Max Feinstein–CWRU SOM
Carly Thoma-Perry–Marian University COM
Interested in learning more about legislative visits and other ways you can get involved with advocacy? Visit //www.amsa.org/advocacy/.
