This post was updated April 13 at 11:31 p.m.

Students, researchers and policymakers expressed concerns about how the Trump administration will impact health equity and called for student advocacy at a Saturday conference.

The second annual conference, hosted by Universities Allied for Essential Medicines at UCLA – a club seeking to improve medicine and affordable access – took place in the Neuroscience Research Building. The event’s theme, “Future Frontiers in Healthcare: Advancing Medicine Accessibility,” aimed to highlight the organization’s efforts to advance health equity, said Luella Messex, a second-year public health student and outreach director for UAEM UCLA.

UAEM North America Executive Director Justin Mendoza opened the event by reminding attendees of the historical power of student-led movements, citing examples such as Vietnam War protests and Harvard University students’ push for divestment from fossil fuels.

“Student advocacy – when it’s persistent, when it’s organized, when it’s planned and when it’s built – can win and can shift things,” he said.

Anusha Puri, a second-year computational biology student, said she learned about the impact of student activism from Mendoza’s speech. She added that it is important to keep universities accountable for upholding their commitments.

“It’s possible to make change from the university level to the government level,” Puri said. “I think that’s really inspiring.”

Advocacy by students in UAEM chapters nationwide led to the development of a National Institute of Health policy to require organizations applying for drug commercial patents to submit plans for promoting patient access, Mendoza added.

The policy’s implementation was delayed from June 2025 to October 2025 by the new presidential administration to seek more stakeholder input, according to a policy notice from the NIH.

However, Mendoza said he believes the additional review is unnecessary.

“There were 10,000 comments submitted on the policy when it went through its normal legal process for public comment, and they still want more input,” Mendoza said.

The event transitioned into two rounds of workshops held at the Fielding School of Public Health. The four workshops focused on UAEM’s national projects, the future of reproductive health care, public health policy and the role of AI in medicine.

In one workshop, UAEM board members discussed the methodology behind UAEM’s United States university report card, which assessed universities’ commitments to global health impact and access to medicines.

UCLA received a score of D- on the 2020 report card, said Mona Reddy Kurra – a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student and president of UAEM UCLA.

“It’s pretty unfortunate that such a leading institution in the U.S. – even in California, which is a pretty progressive state in terms of health equity and access – has such a low score in reporting and accountability and addressing health disparities,” Reddy Kurra said in her workshop.

UAEM UCLA seeks to advocate for increased research funding into diseases that are currently neglected, new courses on health equity, the creation of a student advisory committee and annual reports on the university’s progress, Reddy Kurra added.

Jasi Bermejo, a third-year human biology and society student, presented the university’s obligations for protecting reproductive rights in another workshop. She said she is worried about the new presidential administration’s efforts to curtail reproductive rights.

“During hard times like this, that’s especially when it’s important to buckle down and make sure that you’re pushing for these advocacy movements,” Bermejo said. “Because if you’re not doing it, then who will?”

Kenneth Senstad, a member of UAEM, said his membership in the organization has broadened his understanding of health equity for different marginalized populations, adding that it has informed his daily work for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health.

“It seems like historically, along with education, health care has been something that’s strictly for privileged people,” Senstad said. “Breaking down those historical barriers will lead us to preventing the next pandemic or improving our public utility of our health care sector.”

The event closed with a five-speaker panel of UCLA professors and health care experts, who discussed their involvement in public health and the future of the field.

Rachael Jones, a professor at the School of Public Health, said in her speech the Trump administration’s large-scale reduction of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health poses a critical threat to consumer and worker health. Fundamental public health issues stem from the denial of dignity from often overlooked communities, she added.

Mendoza said he hopes the day’s events inspired students to pursue change-making in areas of public health that they are passionate about.

“Follow the thing that’s going to drive you, and pursue it on every avenue that makes sense,” he said. “You will be able to make an impact along the way.”