The Indiana State Medical Association has recognized two 2024 medical school graduates, Alissa Haas, MD and Matt Turton, DO, with the 2024 ISMA Future Physician Leader Award. The annual honor recognizes one graduating student at each of Indiana’s two medical schools who has worked to advance the leadership and impact of physicians and who exhibits compassion, respect and collaboration through advocacy, education and mentoring.

Dr. Haas, who graduates from Indiana University School of Medicine on May 10, was the ISMA Medical Student Society (MSS) president in 2023. Her leadership skills have been critical in strengthening the relationship between MSS and the ISMA House of Delegates, and she was an ISMA delegate herself in 2021 and 2022. At IU South Bend, Dr. Haas served as ISMA’s campus representative and took charge of volunteers for a Navari Student Outreach Clinic vaccination clinic. She also coordinated blood drives at all nine IU School of Medicine campuses as MSS community action chair. During her time in Indianapolis, Dr. Haas managed volunteers at the Timmy Global Health organization in Greenwood. Dr. Haas will begin her residency in plastic surgery at Southern Illinois University this fall. 

Dr. Turton has demonstrated leadership qualities in multiple roles at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MU-COM). He served the last two years on MU-COM’s Clinical Council and was most recently the wellness officer for Marian’s student government. Dr. Turton is passionate about access to quality health care in underserved communities and described how his rural background and encounters with rural patients as a medical student have inspired him to pursue a career in primary care. This fall, he will begin his family medicine residency at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis.


IUSM graduate Alissa Haas, MD receives her Future Physician Leader Award from ISMA Executive Vice President Julie Reed, JD; MU-COM graduate Matt Turton, DO, poses with his award with ISMA President David R. Diaz, MD, and Reed.