For more than 100 years, the LACMA has been a constant voice for the local medical community
LACMA Elections provide members in good standing an opportunity to get more involved in the decision-making process and serve as representatives of their local communities throughout Los Angeles County. Members have the opportunity to run for and elect persons for the LACMA Board and local leadership positions.
LACMA holds its elections every June. Active members of LACMA and CMA have the privilege of voting for their preferred candidates.
At the end of May, members can expect to receive a voting ballot via email or mail and you will be able to cast your vote for your preferred candidate. Please be sure to keep an eye out for your ballot and submit your vote.
View the current LACMA bylaws here.
To ensure that you are receiving all of LACMA’s communications, please update your contact information.
Voting begins on Monday, May 18, 2026 and ends on Monday, June 1, 2026. Members will receive their ballots via email or mail. The contested elections below will appear on the ballot.
Congratulations to the following elected leaders! They will NOT appear on the ballot due to their uncontested races.
President-Elect - Stacey Ludwig, MD
Treasurer - Christopher Libby, MD
Secretary - Valencia Walker, MD
Councilor-at-Large - Samuel Nyamu, MD
District 5 Councilor - Karen Miotto, MD
District 7 Councilor - Norman Lepor, MD
District 9 Councilor - Omer Deen, MD
District 10 Councilor - Stephanie Booth, MD
Solo and Small Group Councilor - Salman Khan, MD
Young Physician Councilor - Gwendolyn Lee, MD
CMA Trustee - Jerry Abraham, MD
The candidates below are running for a Resident/Fellow Councilor position on the LACMA Board of Directors. There is one (1) open seat each with a one (1) year term. The runner up will serve as the Alternate Resident/Fellow Councilor.
My name is Justin Chang, and I am an incoming PGY-1 at the USC Keck School of Medicine’s Family Medicine Residency. Throughout medical school, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in organized medicine, through the California Medical Association and the San Bernardino County Medical Society. I hope to share my experience and make an impact, as I begin my residency training here in Los Angeles, and thus I am hoping to serve as your next Resident Councilor.
I am honored to be currently serving as a Trustee on the CMA’s Board of Trustees, representing medical students across the state. I was elected by my peers to serve two terms in this role, and I will be continuing in this position until October 2026. As a Trustee, I find it especially important to relate information back to my delegation as well as to my peers in the San Bernardino County Medical Society. As a Trustee, I have helped the CMA in advocating for our physicians, residents/fellows, and medical students in this dynamic political landscape. I oftentimes think back to my prior career in politics where I worked as a Congressional Staffer for a local Member of Congress, before entering medical school.
On a more local level, I have helped to develop an interest in organized medicine amongst my peers. I served as the Vice-Chair of Policy for the CMA’s Medical Student Section (MSS); in this role, I led our delegation through the CMA’s year-long resolution cycle and taught medical students throughout the state how to write resolutions via our MSS SoCal and NorCal Policy Days and even during CMA’S Legislative Day.
I hope to continue to expand my passions in advocacy and medicine and would be grateful to serve as your Resident Councilor.
To my esteemed colleagues,
I am honored to run for the LACMA Board Resident/Fellow Councillor position. Organized medicine has been central to my professional identity throughout my training, and I am committed to ensuring that residents and fellows have a meaningful voice in shaping the future of medicine in Los Angeles.
As a member of organized medicine since 2017 through the AMA, and over the past three years in the CMA and LACMA, I have gained experience in policy development, advocacy, coalition-building, and physician leadership at the local, state, and national levels. I currently serve in AMA and CMA leadership roles, including leading the AMA RFS Committee on Legislation & Advocacy and serving on California’s National Delegation as a Delegate. In these roles, I have consistently worked to elevate trainee perspectives on issues affecting our patients, our profession, and the communities we serve.
Within LACMA, I have demonstrated a strong commitment to engagement and follow-through. I have maintained an excellent track record of attendance with the LACMA Delegation and the Early Career Physicians group, actively recruited new resident members to join LACMA, and encouraged turnout at LACMA events, including programming for young physicians. I also authored a resolution advocating for protections for postpartum physicians and successfully garnered LACMA support, reflecting my ability to identify issues affecting physician well-being and translate them into organized action.
As Resident/Fellow Councillor, I would work to strengthen resident and fellow engagement across Los Angeles County, expand opportunities for mentorship and leadership development, and ensure trainee concerns are represented in LACMA’s decision-making.
I would be honored to have your vote and the opportunity to represent my fellow residents and fellows with dedication, reliability, and purpose.
Sincerely,
Shireen Saxena, MD
The candidates below are running for a Medical Student Councilor position on the LACMA Board of Directors. There is one (1) open seat each with a one (1) year term. The runner up will serve as the Alternate Medical Student Councilor.
I am Christina Burns, a first-year medical student at Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, and I am running for Medical Student Councilor to contribute my skills and experience to the incredible work of LACMA. I was first introduced to LACMA as a FutureMedLA scholarship recipient, and have since contributed to the Public Health Council, the Women Physicians Issues and Advocacy Committee, and the Young Physicians Advisory Committee. Through the Public Health Council this year, I worked alongside committee leadership to develop a community resource flyer in response to H.R.1 coverage changes, connecting LA County residents to healthcare, food, housing, and other supports. The flyer is now being shared across public spaces, clinics, and community organizations countywide.
Outside LACMA, I serve as the KPSOM delegate to the California Medical Association (CMA) and the American Medical Association (AMA), carrying student perspective into policy shaping at the state and national levels. I also serve as Chair of the KPSOM Student Curricular Board and on the Research Advisory Panel, where I have learned to represent my fellow medical students. As former Executive Director of MiOra, an LA-based public health nonprofit, I spent years building bridges between students, researchers, and the LA County communities most impacted by health inequities. Across these roles, I have learned how to represent diverse voices in policy conversations, build coalitions between students and institutions, and move ideas from discussion to action; experience that will make me successful in this position.
If elected, I will keep amplifying student voices in LACMA's work, strengthen cross-school collaboration among LA's medical students, and broaden student engagement within organized medicine, particularly for those historically underrepresented in physician leadership. I would be honored to serve as your Medical Student Councilor and to represent LA County's medical students at the Board level. Thank you for your consideration.
My name Michael Chen, a third-year medical student at Western University, and I am honored to run for Medical Student Councilor on the LACMA Board of Directors.
Organized medicine has taught me that our voices as advocates represent not only ourselves, but also our colleagues and our patients. Engaging in advocacy has been my way of making a meaningful impact on healthcare outside of the clinic, and it has shown me the importance of collaboration, representation, and service in advancing our profession.
As Vice-Chair of CMA Relations for our CMA-MSS for the past two years, I have worked to connect medical students across Southern California and strengthen student engagement in organized medicine at the local and state level. I have also helped organize student participation in CMA’s Legislative Advocacy Days, as well as regional initiatives such as SoCal Policy Day, creating opportunities for students to collaborate, learn, and advocate alongside physician leaders and legislators.
At the national level, I serve on the AMA-MSS Committee on Medical Education, working to ensure medical students’ voices are represented in conversations surrounding medical education and the future of physician training. These experiences have reinforced my belief that meaningful progress in healthcare comes from building strong connections between students, physicians, and policymakers. Most importantly, they have shown me the importance of making sure every voice is heard.
If elected, I will focus on strengthening student engagement within LACMA, expanding mentorship and leadership opportunities, and helping students become more involved in advocacy that impacts both physicians and patients throughout Los Angeles County.
I hope to continue building bridges between students, physicians, and policymakers so that the voices of our peers and patients remain represented in shaping the future of healthcare.
Hello everyone, nice to meet you! My name is Jocelyn Chow and I am excited to be running to serve as your medical student councilor on the LACMA Board of Directors. Coming into medical school, I knew I wanted to be involved in health advocacy, and CMA provided the perfect avenue to do so. During SoCal Policy Day, Dr. Anna Yap emphasized that for change to occur, we need to stand together as a collective and speak up about the issues that are important to us. These words have really stuck with me, especially during Legislative Advocacy Day when I saw many of my peers share powerful testimonies about why it was important to them that legislators support the CMA’s positions on key bills. As a member of the Early Career Physicians Committee, I’ve also had the opportunity to share my perspective as a medical student navigating challenges such as the financial burdens associated with recent changes to financial aid under HR-1. I believe that as medical students, we bring a unique outlook on what medicine means to us, because our shared medical student perspective can help shape the future landscape of our profession. Thus, my goals with this position are to serve as a reliable and proactive sounding board for the medical students within LA county and effectively bridge communication between LACMA and our medical student body to expand access to student support, mentorship and advocacy events. As medical student councilor, I hope to be someone that can uplift my peers and to ensure that our medical student perspective is meaningfully represented within LACMA for the betterment of our community. I’d be happy to hop on a call to chat, listen to your stories, and explore how we can work together to strengthen our collective voice.
Hello everyone! My name is Preston Dang, second-year osteopathic medical student at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, and I am honored to be running for Medical Student Councilor on the LACMA Board of Directors. I am pursuing candidacy to represent and further the advocacy interests of medical students within the CMA.
I will bring extensive organized medicine experience to this role. I currently serving as policy co-chair of Region 1 of the American Medical Association Medical Student Section (AMA-MSS) and representing medical students from 15 different states, from California to South Dakota. As policy co-chair, I have helped advise our delegation members on resolution drafting and helped develop our region-wide stances on policy debated at the 2025 AMA-MSS Interim Meeting. I am also a current member of the Asian Pacific American Medical Students Association (APAMSA), where I will be beginning my second annual term as a National Advocacy Committee member. Within APAMSA, I have been able to further explore my interests in health inequity and care disparities among Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities and contribute to reinforcing local advocacy efforts among APAMSA chapters at medical schools across the country.
Finally, I have been an active member within the CMA, having represented the LACMA delegation at Legislative Advocacy Day for the past two years, as well as attending the House of Delegates Meeting last fall in Los Angeles to represent the Medical Student Section. I am excited to take the next step in my involvement in CMA and work more directly with the Board of Directors on its advocacy priorities, while also representing the interests and perspectives of my medical student colleagues.
Thank you all for your consideration, and I would be honored to serve the CMA as Medical Student Councilor over this upcoming term.
No candidate statement submitted.
The California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates (HOD) consists of over 550 delegates elected by component medical societies, specialty societies, and CMA sections and forums, representing virtually every mode of practice and region of the state.
CMA's House of Delegates convenes annually to debate on the most important issues affecting members, the Association, and the practice of medicine. Actionable reports on those topics are presented and debated, and educational speakers are often invited to provide additional insight. The House also addresses any other issues referred to it by the Board of Trustees, including any changes to the bylaws matters regarding charters, etc. During the Annual Session, the House elects officers, honors members for their service, and receives important updates about the activities of the Association in the past year.
While only Delegates can address the House during Annual Session, any CMA member may present testimony (i.e. speak for or against a recommendation) during the online testimony period of the Major Issues. This is similar to how Members can submit written testimony on submitted resolutions that are accessible via their account dashboard on the CMA website.
If anyone has any questions regarding the positions or the election process, please contact Lisa Le at (213) 226-0304 or at lisa@ladocs.org.
*Unsure what district you belong to? Click HERE.
District
# of Delegate Vacancies
# of Alternate Delegate Vacancies
1 – Metropolitan
8
2 – Pasadena/San Gabriel Valley/Glendale
3
5 – Bay
10
6 – W. San Fernando Valley/Santa Clarita Valley
2
7 – Beverly Hills
1
9 – Southwest/South
10 – Southeast/East/Long Beach
4
14 – Foothill/Pomona
17 – E. San Fernando Valley/Antelope Valley
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