AMA Foundation honors MSVF student award winner as outstanding leader in medicine

16 February 2011

Richard M. Hubbard, a student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, has been named a recipient of the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2011 Leadership Award. This award provides medical students, residents/fellows and early career physicians from around the country with special training to develop their skills as future leaders in organized medicine and community affairs.

The AMA Foundation honored 30 individuals with the award at its annual Excellence in Medicine Awards ceremony on Feb. 8 in Washington, D.C. Presented in association with Pfizer Inc., recipients of the award are recognized for demonstrating outstanding non-clinical leadership skills in advocacy, community service and education. Mr. Hubbard is one of only 24 medical students in the nation to receive a leadership award.

Currently in his second year of studies, Mr. Hubbard has a special interest in socio-economic and health issues facing poor and abandoned children in the developing world. He is co-founder and president of the Basic Needs Program, a charitable organization that provides housing, clothing, food, education and medical care to 25 orphaned children in Bangladesh. Mr. Hubbard is also the founder of The Susan Hubbard School, a primary school providing education to 60 children in rural Bangladesh. In addition, he is working with faculty at VCU School of Medicine to develop a health care project that provides medical services to poor children and their families. Mr. Hubbard was recently named the student recipient of the Salute to Service Award, given to one medical student each year by the Medical Society of Virginia Foundation.

“As our nation continues to struggle with issues of access, disease prevention and disparities in care, encouraging the next generation of leaders is critical,” said Barney R. Maynard, MD, AMA Foundation President. “We need individuals like these award recipients who are taking the initiative to tackle health care’s most difficult challenges.”