Jenny Lai Chinnapha is a first-year medical student currently attending California Health Sciences University, College of Osteopathic Medicine in Clovis, CA. She immigrated from Bangkok, Thailand to Kauai, Hawaii when she was eight years old. Five years following her family’s immigration, they moved once more to the Central Valley of California where Jenny spent the remainder of her childhood. Since then, she has earned her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley with double major degrees in both Psychology and Molecular Cellular Biology – Neurobiology. She has also spent time volunteering as an EMT and working as a Medical Fellow at an ophthalmology clinic in the Bay Area.

Jenny has a passion for mentorship, advocacy, and cultivating spaces to support her AANHPI community. During the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst the AAPI-directed hate crimes, Jenny created the Happy Gaea Initiative, which donated all funds generated from selling her and her sister’s digital artwork to organizations that offered public health assistance to communities in need and tangible support for the Stop Asian Hate movement. At UC Berkeley, she founded the Thai American Cultural Association (TACA) and served as the organization’s president to provide students a safe space to explore their cultural identities and learn more about Thai language and culture. She looks forward to continue advocating for her larger community as part of APAMSA’s Southeast Asian Diversity Committee and to integrate this in her future medical practice as a physician. Outside of medicine, Jenny enjoys rock climbing, writing poetry, creating digital art, listening to live music, and sharing food with her friends and family.