#ImpactCreator Spotlight: Aliza Lopez, Healthcare Equity
Name: Aliza Lopez
Age: 17
Location: New Jersey
Organization: Medicine Encompassed
Bio: I’m Aliza Lopez and I advocate for equity in the healthcare system, STEAM, the sciences, and education. With an eye towards solving issues in today's generation, I want to continue pushing for increased representation in workforces; DEI efforts embody these goals well. I stand by the importance of personal branding, self-development, interaction, and flexibility in any collaborative space.
I currently co-direct the 501(c)(3) organization, Medicine Encompassed, which operates many initiatives that relate to health and medical literacy in student groups. Services include a STEAM-based curriculum, a presentation initiative, a podcast, mentorship initiative, medical committees, and more. I've always believed that two heads are certainly better than one, and having a community of common goals promotes productivity on a large scale. With my leadership efforts, ME was designated the 2021 T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge Grand Prize Winner in Education; I’ve also received other personal and organizational honors for community service with ME. My interdisciplinary interests have driven me to potentially work in the clinical field (neurosurgery) and social fields (e.g. international outreach, health campaigns, student engagement). With participation in nonprofit organizations and advocacy in communities, I strive to break this glass ceiling for diverse groups.
1. What was your understanding of your "purpose" when you were in high school, and how has that evolved over time?
From early on, I knew that I wanted my actions to leave a worthwhile, meaningful impact on as many folks as possible, but I didn’t really know how to create this concrete course for myself. There wasn’t a “right” or “wrong” answer on how to plan out these steps. Everyone’s lived experiences influence their pathways differently, so my purpose seemed to be very open-ended — for me, “impact” could be defined by so many measures. I had a vague idea of what ‘point A’ and ‘point B’ for me looked like, but I had to identify the best way to connect these dots to create a cohesive set of actions for myself. Over time, I became more open to “rerouting” this path along the way – especially as new avenues opened up. Self-exploration and inner discovery was key in this process. I’ve had the chance to trace my background, interests, and end goals (though I never considered it the “end,” but just another point for me to keep expanding) to determine where I could take my visions. I now understand that my current purpose as a student leader is to provide my rich youth perspective, embrace others’ voices, and build communities to unify young people — especially in healthcare and medicine.
2. Why do you do the work you do? What impact do you hope to create?
I’m committed to my work and my impact pathways not only for my personal development and leadership growth, but because what I do today sets a foundation for the next initiatives and movements. While we tend to say that all of the world’s most effective innovations have started from recognizing a problem, I personally think that there’s a stage before this. We should first accelerate the ideas that “age doesn’t equate to impact” and “diversity matters,” both in the changemaker AND in the actual changemaking process. Empowering groups to take actions and realize the great potential of their visions is achieved in many ways that I hope to pursue — directly, by ensuring that the educational experiences of my campaigns, outreach, organizations, etc. reach as large a population as possible; and indirectly, by proving that anyone, regardless of their characteristics, can influence a movement. Inspiring and shaping the core values of young folks is just as important as being able to provide tangible, enriching resources from my own work to its target populations. My impact lies at the intersection of both qualities.
3. How did you discover your current career path, and what support did you receive along the way?
My thought process is, I’d say, pretty holistic. I always knew that my inquisitiveness and natural love for the intersection of hands-on work, STEAM, and interactions by positively serving others paired perfectly with the values of medicine. However, I eventually realized that the healthcare field doesn’t focus only on the technical sides of treatment — you’re also required to be open to a patient’s innate qualities, their individuality, and their values (whether cultural or personal). From this, it’s clear that medicine is multifaceted in itself; as a clinical and a social field, seeing my current career path through these lenses deepened my interest and research into public health and the social determinants of health (SDoH). Though healthcare is a universal right, communities do not meet the same standard of administering treatment, which causes the field to be fairly unequal.
Health and medical literacy has been a significant factor in the system’s equity and accessibility. This quality supports the demand for diverse workforces, something that is upheld by Medicine Encompassed. Our international student community is the backbone of this pathway. It’s so fulfilling to see both physician-based and peer-to-peer mentorship with students like myself, as our students respect each other’s views and support their goals! We’re already pushing these values in healthcare, as it stands on selflessness, communication, and transparency — characteristics that have always motivated me to continue reaching out to larger populations in any way possible.
4. What have you learned from any professional or personal challenge(s) or failure(s) that you have experienced in your life?
I’ve learned that everyone deserves a seat at the table: a beyond valuable opportunity to make prudent steps and include the perspectives of all that are impacted. Just as actions speak louder than words, I feel that one’s personal initiative and footprint brings more volume than a position title or label. With the appropriate resources and a concrete vision, is it necessary to be in a place of high authority to initiate progress? Not at all. Simply having the ability to identify the smallest of disparities in a system or generating unique ways to equalize a field is enough to spark that long-awaited change — age is not the “standard” of experience, but many groups have treated it as such. You can't wait for others to create that novel solution or propose a new policy, or even be a bystander in social impact. Identification and demand is the first stage; if you’re already in this position, it’s true that the potential of this positive movement is in the eye of its beholder.
5. What do you think today's youth has to look forward to?
Generation Z is characterized by our openness, a go-getter attitude, and transparency — I can see this being elevated by co-creating initiatives and campaigns with the best interests of many groups! In fact, the use of social media has made the transfer of information much more efficient, and it’s quite fascinating how these virtual networks can be a way to have more young people involved regardless of their location. Increasing awareness is one of the biggest priorities of many young changemakers. We’re also very attuned to the fact that our youth will face the large-scale consequences of the decisions made today, so we tend to take approaches as efficiently as possible.
I would consider this to be our most defining feature. We’re constantly taking the resources available to us and maximizing its purpose — or if a certain innovation doesn’t exist yet, you can usually expect that Generation Z is already working to bridge these gaps. The proactive qualities of today’s young people have shattered the misconceptions that we may be “inexperienced” due to our age, but as the most diverse generation yet, our views and actionable tasks are more crucial than ever. I like to think that even the voice of one person can cause a butterfly effect in bringing a more impactful movement; with our civic engagement and perspectives, we can definitely count on this.