EAST LANSING – Lakshmi Kanta Tummala of Flint is serving this year as president of the Michigan State Medical Society Alliance. She will serve a one-year term overseeing the activities of the 1,300-member organization that focuses on public health issues and supports activities of the state medical society.

Recent projects of the MSMS Alliance, an organization of physician spouses founded in 1926, include educational programs on domestic violence and bullying in schools. The Alliance also works to support health care legislation in the state including smoke free air, physical education in schools, tanning salon regulation, defeat chiropractic bills and help preserve tort reforms. This year, the MSMS Alliance would like to focus on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in Children, Childhood Obesity and Heart Disease in Women.

Lakshmi’s husband, Jawahar Tummala, MD, is an internist and pediatrician in Flint. Married for 39 years, the Tummalas came to Flint in 1971 and have made Flint their home ever since. The Tummalas have two grown children including son, Satish, and daughter, Sunita married to Sachin Khullar. Both children earned medical degrees.

Born and raised in India, Lakshmi holds a bachelor’s degree with majors in psychology, philosophy and sociology. Her hobbies include reading, music and travel.

Lakshmi has been an active member of Genesee County Medical Society Alliance for the past 19 years and served as its president. At the county Alliance level, she served on various committees and chaired AMA Foundation, Membership, Needlework Guild, Immunizations, Program, S.A.V.E. Day, the Genesee County Medical Society/Genesee County Medical Society Presidents’ Ball, as volunteer coordinator for the Healing Hands 5K Run/Walk, Editor of the newsletter Focus and Treasurer. She most recently served as Corresponding Secretary, South East Regional Director for the MSMS Alliance and President-elect. Lakshmi continues to serve as contributing editor to the Genesee County Medical Society’s The Bulletin. Lakshmi also is very active in the Flint community. She volunteered with the Bucket Brigade in her children’s elementary school and the local library. Lakshmi is a past president of the India Club of Greater Flint and is involved with the Community Foundation of Greater Flint as president of the India Scholarship Fund that provides scholarships for students at the University of Michigan-Flint.

She served as chair for the Genesee County Committee for Community Peace, which sponsors the annual Peace March that brings several organizations together to promote peace, harmony and unity in the community. She is also on the board of the International Development Fund for Higher Education and sponsors several scholarships for college students annually.

As members of Chinmaya Seva Samithi, Lakshmi and her husband, Jawahar, sponsored the annual dinner for over fifteen years to help raise funds for their organization. They funded a primary health clinic in their native village to provide health care for the poor and needy, as well as science and computer labs at a college in a neighboring town.

Lakshmi believes that life is never so busy that there is no time to share. She says, “ Volunteering is not a choice, it is a responsibility.”