As a part of a proactive campaign to introduce NAAMA to schools and colleges across the state, delegates from NAAMA Michigan initiated a visit in July to Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine where they met Dean William D. Strampel, D.O.

Dean Strampel shared information about the medical school and how it continues to be a leader for the osteopathic profession and for health care in the United States. He talked about community outreach activities by faculty, students and alumni as part of the college’s commitment to caring for the medically underserved. He shared that diversity is important to the college which admits many Arab-American students.

We were informed that MSUCOM is involved with a wide variety of international health programs, including health care consultation in the United Arab Emirates and other countries.

We presented NAAMA to Dean Strampel and its mission and gave him a glimpse of the chapter’s activities and membership. Ideas were exchanged on possible collaborations between the chapter and the college such as teaching and mentoring exchange, as well as a career orientation day for Arab-American students featuring a speaker from the MSUCOM.

Dean Strampel offered to put us in touch with the school’s diversity coordinator to arrange for collaborative events and he expressed interest in being notified about and promoting NAAMA’s conventions and educational functions.

Efforts to visit other major medical schools in the Michigan area are already planned.