ISMA is pleased to recognize Brandon Francis with the first Future Physician Leader Award to be presented to a graduating student at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). The award recognizes an IUSM student who has demonstrated a positive vision for organized medicine and enthusiastically contributes to that vision.

Award recipients are dedicated to advancing the role of physicians in their personal, professional and community lives. They also must have exhibited compassion, respect and collaboration through advocacy, education, and mentoring.

While a student at IUSM, Francis served in a variety of leadership roles with the ISMA Medical Student Society (MSS), including as president and vice president of administration. As a student member of the ISMA House of Delegates, he represented his peers at ISMA’s annual convention, voting on resolutions that helped determine ISMA’s legislative agenda and bylaws. He also co-authored a resolution to support appropriate legislation that would ban the civilian sale and distribution of all assault-type weapons, which was added to the ISMA Policy Manual.

Francis shone on the national stage as well, serving as a student delegate to the AMA and co-chairing the AMA Medical Student Section House of Delegates Coordination Committee. This committee facilitates collaboration among student delegates to determine a well-informed position on resolutions and reports presented to the AMA House of Delegates.

Because IUSM’s 2021 commencement ceremony was virtual, ISMA Executive Vice President Julie Reed, JD, presented Francis with the award during an informal ceremony at ISMA’s office.

Earlier, ISMA announced that the Future Physician Leader Award given annually to a graduating student at the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine had been awarded to Caitlin Harmon for 2021.