OSU Medicine student named to first national liaison role

Friday, August 23, 2019

Allen native Brandon Postoak will help encourage Native Americans to consider medical careers

 

The Association of American Indian Physicians has named an OSU Medicine student to serve as the first osteopathic medicine liaison for the Association of Native American Medical Students.

Brandon Postoak, a second-year medical student at the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Tulsa, was appointed to a one-year term as liaison with the goal of encouraging more Native Americans to consider careers in medicine and other health professions.

Postoak, from Allen, Oklahoma, is an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation. His small-town upbringing has prepared him for this new role.

“Growing up in rural Oklahoma, it’s easy to limit yourself and your life’s goals,” Postoak said. “I was lucky things finally clicked in junior college, and I realized my passion for human science and made becoming a physician my life’s goal. I want to help other Native American students find that spark.”

The Association of Native American Medical Students represents tribal graduate health profession students throughout the U.S. and Canada. It strives to increase the number of Native American students in health professions and serves as a resource network for Native Americans in allied health profession schools.

Postoak is part of a new strategy to attract more osteopathic medical students to both organizations and to the medical profession.

“Improving health care resources is essential to curing the problems of our people,” Postoak continued. “Many Natives are caught in a cycle that promotes poor health. I am committed to take the educational steps necessary to step outside that cycle and someday — as a physician — return to my people to provide a pathway to better health and wellbeing.”

 

MEDIA CONTACT: Melani Hamilton | Managing Director of Marketing and Communications at OSU-CHS | 918-561-8462 | melani.hamilton@okstate.edu