Smita Sinha Kumar, MD, is a PGY2 at Institute for Family Health, Kingston, NY. Dr. Sinha (her preferred name) graduated from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India with a Masters’ degree in Obstetrics and Gynecology. After graduation she joined as a faculty and provider at Manipal Teaching Hospital in Pokhara, Nepal. That one year working with underserved, low resource setting in a picturesque idyllic location shaped her next career choices. Dr. Sinha realized the value of her service and deeply felt the unmet requirements of marginalized communities. She then joined a teaching university hospital in rural Punjab, India where she established the first low-cost fertility service and brought minimally invasive surgery to the area. She established residency training program in ObGyn and taught medical students. She then moved on to USA with a scholarship to study MBA Healthcare at Clarkson University, NY where she graduated with the Joseph Finkelstein Award 2020 for academic excellence and cross-cultural understanding. She worked as Project Manager in upstate NY before being drawn back to patient care when she joined Family Medicine Residency.

Dr. Sinha was awarded the AAFP Foundation, Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute Scholarship award 2022 and participated in a longitudinal leadership training program and wrote a curriculum in reproductive health to help enhance in office comprehensive care of
persons assigned female sex at birth. Recognizing the value POCUS can bring to primary care, she is championing resident training at her residency program. She is working with the GUSI team to boost POCUS in primary care. She believes in advocating for her patients and was recently in Capitol Hill lobbying Congress to support Teaching Health Centers with increasing grants to keep afloat their service in high need, underserved areas typically served by these programs. She looks forward to continuing to serve, learn and improve everyday.