Annelise M. Silva, MD, EdM, is taking a year off between completing medical school and starting her residency. But this is far from a gap year.
After graduating from the Wright State University School of Medicine this past April 28, Dr. Silva started as national president of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) on May 1. With more than 30,000 members and 150 chapters, the AMSA is the largest and oldest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States.
“I wish I would have had a week of vacation,” she jokingly said of the quick turnaround. “I was finishing an away rotation, graduated that weekend, and started (at AMSA) a few days later. The flip from fully clinical to fully business has been a whirlwind.”
Her new duties started quickly. She was on calls to Vice President Harris’ office on her third day and, not long afterward, sitting in on sessions with the National Academy of Medicine and the AAMC.
“I had been in different leadership capacities before, especially in the nonprofit space, but never to this scale and this level,” Dr. Silva said. “It’s still taking me a second to get used to, but it’s an incredible opportunity to bring the voices of future physicians to the table.”
She started medical school in 2020 during the tumult of the COVID pandemic. Already grounded in educational equity work, Dr. Silva was looking for ways to not only build her work in health equity, but also to construct community during quarantine. That inspired her to join the local AMSA chapter at Wright State.
“I have a unique opportunity as a woman of color to use the intersecting lenses of my identity to look at things from a social justice perspective,” she said. “I think often about how we can build more access and communication to help drive patient care in that way.”
In her everyday duties, Dr. Silva oversees the organization’s board of trustees and its 75-member student government. She also works closely with a full-time staff of 20. Dr. Silva spent a year as AMSA’s president-elect before taking the reins this past spring. She will become its immediate past president next spring.
“We’re doing excellent work bringing the medical student voice and the premedical student voice into the spaces where they’re needed because we recognize that it is important for us to help support the healthcare system and society that we will inherit,” she said.
Dr. Silva has been preparing for this role for a while. She started in high school as a peer leadership counselor for Workshops for Youth and Families and then got involved in student organizational leadership in college at Arizona State University (ASU), designing events like multi-state research conferences. After college, Dr. Silva worked with Teach for America (TFA) in Massachusetts as an eighth-grade science teacher during and after earning her master’s in education at Boston University. During her preclinical years in medical school, she worked with fellow ASU and TFA alumnae to found and run the nonprofit Young and Empowered Women, which promotes the professional and personal development of women of color.
She also worked closely as an intern with an executive leadership coaching firm, working with clients like Twitter (X), Airbnb, and the Ford Foundation.
“It gave me the chance to learn what large-scale organizational leadership and change management looks like,” she said.
Her Filipino father and grandfather set the course for Dr. Silva’s career. They’re both diagnostic radiologists and were her first professional role models.
“Radiology has always been the way that medicine has been framed for me,” she said. “I grew up in reading rooms watching my dad interact with colleagues and consultants in the field.”
She’s based in Boston and has submitted her materials to numerous programs across the country with the hope of finding a program that will support her diverse interests in education, research, leadership, and policy. Dr. Silva is keeping her options open and would like to train and eventually work where she can serve people who share her background. She has applied to 80 programs for The Match and hopes to start an internship next July.
“One of the things that makes me most excited about radiology is seeing the push for diversity, equity, and inclusion from a systems perspective that radiologists can provide” she said.
Michele H. Johnson, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging and of neurosurgery at Yale University, met Dr. Silva through the American College of Radiology’s Pipeline Initiative for the Enrichment of Radiology (PIER) Internship. The program, offered to first-year medical students across the U.S., began through the Commission for Women and Diversity to give underrepresented minorities and women opportunities to explore radiology and engage in research. Scholars are paired with at least one preceptor in the student’s area of interest.
Dr. Silva teamed with Dr. Johnson, who was impressed by her younger colleague’s educational background and eagerness to learn more about radiology.
“She’s interested in teaching and sharing,” Dr. Johnson said. “Having a woman in this spot creates a role model for medical students. Annelise has amassed mentors and sponsors to help her along the way and she will carry that forward.”
Dr. Silva is also part of the task force for the American College of Radiology’s Communities Crushing Cancer initiative through the Radiology Health Equity Coalition. The event, which happens in October every year, matches her goals of raising awareness and providing healthcare opportunities for underserved populations. Working with dedicated people from her intended profession gives her even more inspiration to push forward.
“It all resonates with me, and that’s why I could not imagine being in another field,” she said. “I say this without a match quite yet, but radiology is my heart and my home for where I’d like to be in medicine and my community.”
This article originally appeared in the December issue of The Beam, the ABR’s e-newsletter.
