White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL)

Faculty Advisor: Tessa Antonia Haspil-Corgan, MD

In December 2014, an organized nationwide demonstration by over 300 medical students at more than 80 medical schools made national news. This was a collective action by health professionals speaking out against police violence and institutionalized racism at the height of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Soon after these students formed White Coats for Black Lives - a national medical student organization founded on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 2015 with an aim to promote health equity and justice.

Our chapter stands in solidarity with the national organization with an aim to eliminate racial bias in the practice of medicine and recognize racism as a threat to the health and well-being of people of color. We aim to raise awareness, in both medicine and the community, of racism as a public health concern. This organization, in collaboration with fellow HWCOM interest groups, such as the American Medical Women’s Association, American Medical Association, and Student National Medical Association, will prepare future physicians to become advocates for racial justice to end racial discrimination in health care. We will create a dialogue and space for students to engage in discussion and activism focused on social and racial justice in medicine both at HWCOM and the medical community at large.

Visit the White Coats for Black Lives website

Student Officers

Co-President: Samantha Sooman
Co-President: Darla Gelin