Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pre-health individuals around the world encountered a range of challenges. Research and internship opportunities were cancelled, clinical experience was unreachable, and prerequisites became more demanding in a remote setting. I myself was working in a research lab in Switzerland when the pandemic was declared, resulting in my career-altering internship to be cut short six months. My life-long friend, Alejandra, had the same experience and reached out to me with an extraordinary idea to unite and empower pre-health individuals on a national level. With my skills in event planning combined with her vision, we built the National Pre-Health Conference (NPHC): a 3-day virtual event for pre-health individuals to explore medical careers and learn how to pursue their professional goals, particularly during these uncertain times. We held our inaugural conference with the theme A Future in Medicine in 2020 with over 1000 attendees from around the country. In 2021, we held our second-annual conference with the theme Unity in Healthcare with over 1000 attendees as well. In addition to planning the second-annual NPHC, I employed pre-event and post-event surveys to assess the confidence level of attendees before and after the conference in healthcare experience, research experience, standardized testing, community service, academics, essay writing, and completing graduate/professionals school applications. We found that NPHC improved the confidence level of attendees in all categories. Overall, understanding how NPHC benefits pre-health students will help our team improve for future conferences.

For most women, pregnancy is the period in which they will have more interaction with the healthcare field than any other period in their lives. The quality and accessibility of obstetric care varies greatly throughout the United States, and health disparities in this field have the largest impact on African American women. Black mothers in the U.S. are three to four times more likely than white mothers to die as a result of pregnancy related complications. The increased risk of maternal morbidity and mortality seen in the African American population is largely due to preventable causes. This thesis project includes three case studies which analyze the most prevalent and preventable sources of health disparity affecting Black mothers: preeclampsia, hemorrhage, and cesarean section. Possible solutions to each of these disparities are explored on an individual, institutional, and societal scale.