September 2023 – Casey Chmura
BA International Studies (Global Environment and Health) ‘18
Hometown: Holly, MI
University of Michigan Affiliations: Honors College, American Red Cross Club student leadership, Michigan Medicine volunteer, Innovation in Action participant
“My time in PICS was instrumental in building skills in the humanities that I continue to use as a medical student and in expanding my career interests to include public health. After graduation, I spent two years as a consultant for the Influenza Division at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA. In December 2019, I began providing technical support to the Influenza Division during the activation of the COVID-19 Emergency Response. I’m now in my fourth year of medical school at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine in Kalamazoo, MI and will be applying for Internal Medicine residency in the fall. After residency, I intend to complete a fellowship in Infectious Disease. I’m closely involved in providing and expanding weekly in-shelter health screening for unhoused populations in the Kalamazoo area. Alongside other student leadership and faculty, I’m also working on the upcoming establishment of a permanent clinic that will be located in one of the shelters. As I communicate with my patients and work alongside them to establish goals for their care, I use my foundation in PICS to consider the significant role that my patients’ lives outside the clinic play in their health. I enjoy looking from new angles to find root causes of their challenges and partnering with my patients and their close decision-makers to creatively problem-solve.”
