AMSA Foundation Senior Staff

Caitlin Phelps, MA
Director, Leadership University
cphelps@amsa.org
703-620-6600 x204

Caitlin has been with the AMSA Foundation since 2004, beginning her tenure as the manager of the federally funded National Primary Care Week project, an interdisciplinary initiative highlighting the need for primary care practitioners and encouraging students to engage in community outreach and service, especially in underserved areas of the United States. The project afforded her the opportunity to work closely with hundreds of health professions students across the country on projects addressing health literacy, careers in community health and health disparities. 

Since 2004, she has also coordinated the NIH-funded Educational Development for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Leadership Training Program, an annual weeklong retreat for medical students interested in developing or furthering their knowledge of complementary and alternative medicine and their leadership skills. In 2006, Caitlin joined AMSA’s Achieving Diversity in Medicine and Dentistry project, which addresses cultural competence and health disparities in both medical and dental education. As Contract Manager, she works with schools implementing new curricula, and also with medical and dental students on projects educating and mentoring middle and high school students from underrepresented populations in health career opportunities.

Caitlin received her Masters degree in applied anthropology, with a focus on community health and development, from the University of Maryland where she served as the H.E. Russell Fellow in Graduate Study. Her undergraduate degree in cultural anthropology and women’s studies is from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Her interests include women's health, public policy and the practice of yoga.

Angelia Bowman, MS
Director, Center on the Future of Health Care
abowman@amsa.org
703-620-6600 x216

Angelia began her tenure with the AMSA Foundation in 2003 when she came on board to help direct the Achieving Diversity in Dentistry and Medicine (ADDM) initiative, a project supported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration.  Through her work on ADDM, Angelia has worked on a number of issues related to dental and medical education with specific emphasis on improving the quality of cultural competency and ethnogeriatric training in medical and dental schools, promoting leadership opportunities for students, and the make-up of the health workforce.  In 2004, she joined AMSA’s End-of-Life Care Education initiative, a project that offers comprehensive training in end-of-life/palliative care for medical students in order to increase the number of doctors trained as effective and compassionate palliative care practitioners.

Angelia holds a Master of Science degree in sociology (with a specialization in gerontology) from Illinois State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology and English from Coe College.  Strongly committed to the belief that the future of health care lies in people and communities working together to better the health of the entire population, her other research interests include studying how different communities and social support networks define and respond to disease (especially Alzheimer’s disease) and exploring ways to break down generational barriers so that people of all ages can learn from and be enriched by one another.  In her spare time, Angelia enjoys cooking for her family and friends and traveling to the solitude of the mountains in Wyoming and Montana. 

Joan Hedgecock, MSPH
Associate Director, AMSA Foundation
Director, Student Action Center on Public Health and Medicine       
joan_h@amsa.org
703-620-6600 x208

Joan has been with the AMSA Foundation since 1984 when she began developing programming on behalf of medical students. She has directed the development and administration of various Federal and private philanthropic procurements addressing community and public health, humanism in medicine, international health, healthcare management, end of life care, and student well-being. Joan currently serves as the Principal Investigator of an NIH grant on complementary and alternative medicine. She has also been involved in various research projects and the publication of project-related articles for peer-reviewed journals. In addition, she has helped plan student conferences focusing on community health and health disparities.

Prior to joining AMSA, Joan served as a consultant on international health and community health projects, involving family planning, community health centers, evaluation, governing board training, health service utilization, and much more. She has also had experience as a rural health center administrator in West Virginia.

Joan attended Connecticut College where she received her Bachelors Degree in economics and the University of North Carolina School of Public Health where she received her Masters Degree in health administration, with a focus on family planning. She has been active in her community and currently volunteers at a free clinic. She keeps physically fit by performing chores around her farm and participating in aerobics classes.