COM Outlook - Winter 2016

22 Nova Southeastern University Student COMmunications IN JULY, fourth-year student Carisa Champion-Lippmann , J.D., received the loftiest of honors when she was named to the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Board of Trustees as its sole student representative at the AOA 95th Annual House of Delegates meeting held July 17–19 in Chicago, Illinois. “Carisa is an ideal representative for her fellow osteopathic medicine students throughout the United States as a member of the AOA Board of Trustees,” said Elaine M. Wallace, D.O., M.S., M.S., M.S., NSU-COM dean. “She has a good under- standing of issues facing the field and has achieved so much at such a young age. We can only imagine the possibilities Carisa has in store for her future.” The AOA Board of Trustees, which is the association’s admin- istrative body, has authority to conduct all business when the House of Delegates is not in session, and when such policies are essential to the management of the AOA. These duties include administration of the association’s finances; appoint- ments to bureaus, councils, and committees; decisions on all questions of ethical/judicial issues; and review and approval of amendments to the constitution, bylaws, and regulations of affiliated organizations. Champion-Lippmann, a class of 2016 NSU-COM student and Master of Public Health candidate, was the inaugural student in NSU’s pilot parallel D.O./J.D. program and received her Juris Doctor degree from NSU’s Shepard Broad College of Law in May 2015. She was also appointed as the national Student Osteopathic Surgical Association ambassador and was named cochair of the AOA’s Bureau of Emerging Leaders. Student Named to AOA Board of Trustees Welcome Class of 2019 ON AUGUST 9, the class of 2019 was officially welcomed into the osteopathic profession at the 35th Annual White Coat Ceremony, which was held at the Arena at NSU’s Don Taft University Center. For the 248 students comprising the class of 2019, the White Coat Ceremony served as an auspicious experience that officially marked their entry into the medical vocation. In the presence of family, guests, and faculty members, the students were welcomed into the medical community by leaders of the osteopathic profession and ceremonially cloaked with their white coats. By establishing this meaning- ful ritual at the beginning of medical school, the intent is to make students aware of their responsibilities from the first day of training and convey the message that doctors should care as well as cure. During the ceremony, NSU-COM faculty members cloak students in the white coats they will wear throughout their medical school experience.