NNLAMS is composed of 5 regions: Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and West.
- Midwest region: NNLAMS Midwest was originally founded as the Latino Midwest Medical Student Association or LMMSA in 1990 at the University of Illinois. It is a student run organization dedicated to issues of advocacy, access and education of Latino and Latina students in medicine and health care.
The NNLAMS Midwest consists of dedicated medical students from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
- Northeast region (NBLHO): The National Boricua Latino Health Organization (NBLHO) is a Latino student group representing health professions students from the northeast region of the United States. This group was formed in 1970 in response to Latino medical students demanding a voice. Today, there are approximately eleven active medical school chapters, and 200 medical student members in the area between Washington, D.C. and Maine.
- Southeast region: The southeast region is composed of the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the common wealth of Puerto Rico. Active chapters are located in the state of Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Garcia Leadership Advocacy Seminar was hosted at Duke University in 2005.
- Southwest region: The southwest region is composed of the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. There are nine active medical schools. The SW region held it’s first regional conference in 2007 with the efforts of Anthony Oliva (MD, PhD student) and regional officers. Anthony Oliva has been involved with NNLAMS for many years and has served as national treasurer, national coordinator, and southwest board member.
- West region (LMSA): The founding members of the Chicano/Latino Medical Student Association (CMSA) established a network of medical students throughout the entire state of California in 1982. In April of 1984 the CMSA was introduced as a statewide organization. Subsequently, in order to streamline its outreach efforts to students and to create name recognition conformity with other similar organizations throughout the country, the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) was created to carry on the CMSA vision, with great success. LMSA has thirteen active medical schools throughout California, Arizona, Washington, Oregon and Utah.
NNLAMS operations and vision.
The affairs of NNLAMS is managed and directed by an Executive Board, composed of ten members, two from each of the five NNLAMS Regional Sections. The board is the voting entity of NNLAMS and coordinate to achieve national unifed efforts among the regions.
The central operating core of NNLAMS consists of 12 officers who are responsible for maintaining a functional platform and organizational vision for the board members to make decisions and collaborate.
NNLAMS’ executive director is Phil DeChavez MD, MPH. Dr. DeChavez provides guidance and support to the board and officers throughout the course of their yearly positions.
National Conference Chair: This position works directly with the board and officers of NNLAMS and spearheads the National Conference Committee. The Annual NNLAMS conference is the culmination of the year’s work and provides a moment to reflect upon our current goals and future endeavors.