2026-2027
National Board Elections
The annual APAMSA National Board Election is held every year during the week of the National Conference. It is a great opportunity for APAMSA student members across the nation to get involved in the organization’s leadership. Active APAMSA members who qualify, are eligible to run for a position on the National Board through an application process as outlined below. Candidates are elected to the APAMSA National Board by the House of Delegates (HOD), which is made up of chapter representatives who vote on the behalf of their respective local chapter. All elected National Board officers will serve on the leadership for a 1-year term (14 months for President/President-elect) until the next Election Day (concurrent with the National Conference) is held.
Second round of applications are OPEN! All applicants are required to be official members, and must attend one of the open houses to be eligible to apply. Please see below for the available positions and deadlines.
Election Details
The election consists of two rounds of applications. The first round includes all available National and Executive Boards positions, while the second round includes the remaining open positions.
Please carefully review the information below for details on eligibility, the application process, and important deadlines as NEW CHANGES have been made to the 2026-2027 elections process.
In addition to being an eligible APAMSA member (see below for full eligibility criteria), additional requirements have been added for the 2026-2027 election year:
1. Attend one open house event (required only for new National Board Director applicants – See Deadline/dates below for schedule)
2. Attend an Executive Board meeting (required only for new Executive Board VP applicants – See Deadline/dates below for schedule)
3. Review the 2026-2027 National Board Roles and Responsibilities (click here) and sample Monthly Deliverables documents (click here)
1. Attend the required meetings
Applicants who are new to either the National Board or Executive Board must attend the required open house or an Executive Board meeting, as described above, to be eligible for the election.
Note: Previous National Board members are exempt from attending an open house, while previous Executive Board members are exempt from attending the Executive Board meeting.
2. Write a candidate statement
Each candidate will have the opportunity to submit a written statement demonstrating their candidacy for a position.
The statement will have a 200-word limit (300-word limit for President/President-elect). If a submission exceeds the word limit, it will be automatically truncated on the Candidates Brochure.
3. Record a video
All National Board candidates must present a 2-minute video demonstrating their candidacy for their first choice position. If applying to multiple Director-level positions, videos for subsequent choice of positions are optional. However, if running for multiple Executive-level positions, a 2-minute candidate video is required for each Executive Board position. A 5-second buffer will be allowed before and after the video, however, if the video exceeds the time limit, it will automatically be truncated on the Candidates Brochure.
4. Provide a headshot
A professional headshot is required, which will accompany the rest of your campaign materials when they are uploaded to the Candidates Brochure.
- Open House Dates (ROUND 2 APPLICATIONS): New National Board applicants who have not attended a previous Open House may attend ANY Open House to meet eligibility requirements to the second round of applications (Zoom link here).
- Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 at 6:00pm PST
- Thursday, February 5th, 2026 at 6:00pm PST
- Open House Dates: Applicants may attend ANY Open House to meet eligibility requirements (click here).
- Sunday, January 4th, 2026 at 6:00pm PST – Health Affairs Branch
- Thursday, January 8th, 2026 at 5:00pm PST – External and Advocacy Branches
- Wednesday, January 21st, 2026 at 6:00pm PST – Strategy and Communication Branches
- Monday, January 26th, 2026 at 6:00pm PST – Membership Branch
- Wednesday, January 28th, 2026 at 6:00pm PST – Diversity Branch
- Executive Board Meeting Dates (subject to change): RSVP with your branch VP for meeting link.
- Sunday, December 28th, 2025 at 5:00pm PST
- Sunday, January 11th, 2026 at 5:00pm PST
- Sunday, January 25th, 2026 at 5:00pm PST
- First Round Applications: Saturday, January 31st, 2026 at 11:59pm PST
- Second Round Applications for Open Positions: Sunday, February 8th, 2026 at 11:59pm PST
- Election Day: Friday, February 20th, 2026
- HOD Meeting and Executive Board Q&A: Friday, February 20th, 2026 at 5:00pm PST
- Voting for HOD: Ballots due Friday, February 20th, 2026 at 7:00pm PST
- Elections Results Announcement: Closing ceremony on Saturday, February 21st, 2026 at 5:00pm PST
- Third Round Applications (Post-Election) for Open Positions: TBD. If open positions remain, only the newly elected National Board will participate in third-round application voting.
Executive Board
- President: James Chua (Touro COM-Nevada)
- External Affairs VP/CFO: Emily Chen (WSU BSOM)
- Communications VP: Xueying (Ying) Zheng (UNR Med)
- Health Affairs VP: Alicia Bui (OUWB)
- Advocacy VP: Annie Yao (UConn SOM)
- Diversity VP: Kimsa Nguyen (CHSU)
- Strategy VP: Katrina Hon (Duke SOM)
- Membership VP (3 seats): Philip Nguyen-Powanda (UACOM-P), Thy Nguyen (ATSU-SOMA), Stephen Lin (UNECOM)
External Affairs Branch
- Sponsorship Director (2 seats): Jason Hu (NYU), Brandon Park (UMKC)
- Fundraising Director: Yuming Wu (UMKC)
- National Conference Director (UCSF) (6 seats): Matthew Kim, Brian Tangsombatvisit, Nelson Lin, Jeanna Shaw, Katherine Chua, Tiffany Chen
Communications Branch
- Editor Director: Christine Le (VCOM-LA)
- Social Media Directors (2 seats): Andrew Leung (Hackensack Meridian SOM), Callista Wu (CHSU)
- Network Director: Tiffany Liu (Einstein COM)
Health Affairs Branch
- Community Outreach Director: Elizabeth Nguyen (UT Health San Antonio – LSOM)
- Cancer Initiatives Director: Emily Thai
- Bone Marrow Director: Stephen Kwong (Texas A&M SOM)
- Mental Health Director: Mia Park (MSU)
- Hepatitis B/C Director (2 seats, non-elected): Sophia Choi (UTMB), Hoang-Viet Tran (GWU)
Advocacy Branch
- Health Policy Director: Sarah Kim (CWRU)
- Medical Education Director: Karen Zhang (McGovern Medical School)
- Rapid Response Director: Brian Leung (Touro COM-Nevada)
- Director of Organized Medicine: Xianzhen (Jen) Deng (CHSU)
Diversity Branch
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Director: Caitlin Tanji (JABSOM)
- South Asian Director: Shravani Khisti (UMKC)
- Southeast Asian Director: Fern Vichaikul (MSU)
- LGBTQ+ Director: Joey Hua-Phan (UC Pritzker)
- Women in Medicine Director: Eujung Park (UACOM-P)
Strategy Branch
- Alumni Director (2 seats): Allan Chen (Duke SOM), Kelly Pu (Duke SOM)
- Pre-Health Director (2 seats): Ryesa Mansoor (GWU), Angeline Yu (Stanford Premed)
- Research Director: Lillian Phung (Drexel COM)
- Professional Development Director: Annie Nguyen (Stanford Premed)
Membership Branch
- Region I Director (2): Stephanie Lam (UNECOM), Brian Vu (The Warren Alpert Medical School)
- Region II Director (4): Maggie Zhou (Columbia VP&S), Yue Jiao Jiang (Touro COM-Harlem), Lara Castaneda (Touro COM-Middletown), Timothy Liu (NYU)
- Region III Director (3): Jeffrey Wang (Drexel), Stephen Chien (Drexel), Lucy Zhou (Drexel)
- Region IV Director (3): Danika Ng (CUSOM), Diane Janelle Camonayan (PCOM), Helen Heo (Duke SOM)
- Region V Director (3): Nick Sze (WSU BSOM), Rachel Ablir (MSUCOM), Amy Lin (OSU)
- Region VI Director (3): Anh Luu (UMKC), Stephanie Ngo (KU Med), Lauren Kang (UC Pritzker)
- Region VII Director (3): Carol Chen (UA Tucson Premed), Teresa Anh Tran (UACOM-P), Melanie Jun (UNM SOM)
- Region VIII Director (4): Naomi Tsai (OHSU), Julia Liu (OHSU), Allison Chang (UCSF)
- Region IX Director (3): Francis Khuong (TTUHSC), Aliza Ali (UIWSOM), Shawn Lim (UTMB)
The following positions are open for the second round of applications:
External Affairs Branch:
- Sponsorship Director (2 seats)
- Fundraising Director (1 seat)
Communications Branch:
- Editor Director (1 seat)
- Network Director (1 seat)
- Podcast Director (1 seat)
Strategy Branch:
- Alumni Director (2 seats)
Membership Branch:
- Midwest Region Director (4 seats)
Note: If you already applied, you can still apply to open positions as long as the total number of positions you apply for does not exceed 3! However, please email elections@apamsa.org with your position order preference.
Note: In order to qualify as a candidate for the APAMSA National Board, you must be an official APAMSA member. If you are not yet a member, you can join APAMSA membership at any time of the year. Learn more →
Eligibility Criteria - Who can run?
All candidates must be official members of APAMSA (Join today!)
Medical/graduate students, post-graduates, and pre-health students are all eligible
There are no term limits on any positions, current/past officers may run again if they choose to do so
There are no term limits on any positions, current/past officers may run again if they choose to do so
All elected officers must agree to serve for the entirety of the term (12-14 months).
Executive Board candidates require at least 1 term of previous experience on the National Board
*NEW* Attend one open house event (required only for new applicants or previous National Board members appealing a strike)
*NEW* Attend an Executive Board meeting (required only for Executive Board applicants)
Individuals who have served as house staff at any point before or during the term are ineligible for National Board positions. This includes:
- Individuals who have completed internship/residency
- Individuals who have started but not completed internship/residency
- Current final year medical students planning to graduate in 2025 and begin internship/residency
Who votes?
The House of Delegates (HOD) are made up of individuals selected to represent their local chapter. Each active chapter is eligible to send one delegate to the HOD, and each delegate will have one ballot (for each position) when participating in the National Board Election. Digital ballots will be sent to each chapter delegate’s private email (which are tracked by the elections committee) to ensure no double entries. Candidates are elected by majority voting. All voting results are recorded anonymously.
If you are a chapter representative and have not yet registered for the HOD, click here →
How are votes counted?
Votes are collected using RankedVote.co, and the voting platform is optimized for anonymity, security, and ease of access and use. The voting platform will only accessible by registered voting delegates, and all votes will be anonymous. The RankedVote.co platform uses a ranked voting system, which we implemented in previous years. If there are more than 2 candidates running for a position, delegates must rank each candidate in order of preference. This ensures that if their first-choice candidate wins another position they applied for (and had preference over), then the delegate’s vote will go to the next-best candidate the selected. The results of the votes will be automatically generated by RankedVote.co, and carefully reviewed by the Elections Committee.
FAQ
Executive Board positions require at least one year of service on the National Board because these supervisory roles require familiarity with all positions in the branch. See position descriptions in the Election Pamphlet for detailed requirements.
For the position of the President-Elect/President, at least one year of experience on the Executive Board is highly recommended.
Additionally, all new applicants to the Executive Board must attend at least one Executive Board meeting to be eligible for election.
Yes! For any Executive Board position that has two or more candidates, they will be sitting on a panel to allow for a Q&A session during the House of Delegates meeting on Friday, February 20th, during the HOD session. Come prepared with questions (HOD representatives) and answers (candidates).
In the past, individuals from other health-related schools have made significant contributions to APAMSA, and we are happy to see this trend continue.
Yes. You can submit statements for up to 3 positions as long as you meet the qualification criteria. However, all candidates should give great consideration to each position that they are applying to.
The order of your candidacy submissions will be treated as the order of your position preferences. If a candidate wins the vote for their first position, they will automatically be withdrawn from the race for the other position(s).
Yes, the total number of positions you apply for, in the first and second round combined, should not exceed 3.
No, although we highly encourage it so you can meet and talk with the voting delegates in person and be present for the live elections results announcement. We also have a mandatory Sunday transition meeting in-person/online (hybrid format) for both outgoing and incoming officers.
The Leadership Transition Meeting is held every year the day after the National Conference. It is an orientation meeting for all incoming new officers, and a session for outgoing officers to introduce their branch/position to their successors. It will occur at the 2025 National Conference weekend on Sunday, February 22nd, 2026 at 10:00am-1:00pm PST / 1:00pm-4:00pm EST.
Chapters must register their representative to the House of Delegates every year before the National Conference in order to receive a ballot. The number of participating delegates may range between 100-200 each year. For the 2026 APAMSA Elections, we are anticipating 188 delegates, one for each active APAMSA chapter.
There will be a run-off vote.
Currently there are no rules against running for a position on the National Board while concurrently representing your local chapter at the annual House of Delegates meeting. However, please keep in mind that the House of Delegate vote is for the local chapter as a whole, and not a reflection of individual preferences.
Although we try our best to fill every elected-position via the annual elections process, we may still end up with unfulfilled seats after the National Conference. In this scenario, applications will re-open for all APAMSA members, and officers will be selected based on a vote by the new National Board (not the House of Delegates). All members are encouraged to apply, especially if you had ran for a position but did not win the election.
Feel free to contact elections@apamsa.org with any additional questions.