Pay it Forward with LEAD
AMIA is a community committed to the vision of a world where informatics transforms people’s care.
Over the last 35 years, the use of informatics has grown exponentially to improve health and to make better healthcare decisions. Today, informatics is the key to accelerating the current goals of healthcare reform.
Everyday millions of people benefit from informaticians’ ability to accelerate healthcare’s transformation by collecting, analyzing and applying data directly to care decisions. Data produced throughout health and healthcare is the driving force of informatics and its ability to innovate critical advancements that directly benefit people.
AMIA’s members are critical to discovering these insights, which is why AMIA is committed to being the professional home for the informaticians of today and the driver of informatics’ future.
Via the AMIA LEAD Fund, AMIA is building the foundation for investing in the future generation of diverse and high-impact leaders who will ensure the benefit of biomedical and health informatics innovation and practice is realized at a national and international level.
The LEAD Fund promotes the value of informatics in transforming health and healthcare.
- Awarding scholarship and research
- Highlighting innovation and discovery
- Recognizing professional achievement
- Promoting leadership and advocacy
Mission
The mission of the AMIA LEAD Fund is to develop the resources needed to support and enable programs targeting the AMIA community that:
- Promote diversity in terms of our membership
- Support trainee engagement in AMIA events
- Develop a future generation of AMIA leaders through awards/recognition programs
- Allow current informatics professionals to "pay it forward" and help grow the community
Vision
The AMIA LEAD fund will create a sustainable basis for recognizing and developing future generations of informatics professionals, in order to advance the science and practice of our field.
History
In 2016, AMIA created the Leadership Education and Award Donation (LEAD) Fund to give members the opportunity to “pay it forward” and support philanthropic awards, grants, and recognition programs. To launch this fund, a founding group of donors came forward, providing an initial capital raise in excess of $100,000. These individual donors comprised a founding “Leadership Circle” for the fund.
In 2017, AMIA began to reprogram the traditional Leadership Dinner during the AMIA Annual Symposium, to position the event as not only an opportunity to recognize leaders in the field, but also to solicit individual donations in support of the LEAD Fund. In addition, the LEAD Fund distributed its first allocation of resources to the AMIA First Look Program, supporting the engagement of diverse and under-represented trainees at the AMIA Annual Symposium.
In 2018, AMIA established the LEAD Fund Advisory Committee (LFAC), which is charged with the following responsibilities:
- Developing and overseeing the execution of plans to solicit individual and organizational donors who will financially support the LEAD Fund
- Monitoring the financial performance and sustainability of the LEAD Fund
- Developing and overseeing the execution of plans to distribute financial resources derived from the LEAD Fund, consistent with the guiding principles set forth above
- Developing and overseeing the execution of plans to recognize individual and organizational donors who have provided continuous and/or substantial financial support to the LEAD Fund
In 2019, the LEAD Fund sponsored trainee travel awards to eight eligible students. This was the second allocation of resources which provided each trainee (with an accepted presentation) with a $500 scholarship to be used for travel-related expenses such as registration, transportation to/from the meeting, and/or lodging associated with attending the 2019 Annual Symposium. Awardees were also invited to and honored at the 2019 Annual Symposium Awards Gala.
In 2020, due to COVID-19 and the Annual Symposium transitioning to a virtual symposium, the two trainee scholarships provided complimentary registration to the 2020 Annual Symposium. Awardees were also invited to and honored at the 2020 Virtual Annual Symposium Awards Gala.