Meet the med student planning FUTURE 2026 while prepping for Match Day
March 16, 2026, David Mitchell — Molly Hurd’s entire experience in higher education, so far, has taken place at the University of Vermont, but she made some other interesting stops en route to Match Day.
Hurd held research internships at Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Copenhagen while earning an undergraduate degree in neuroscience. She also worked as a pharmacy tech for a year while she earned her master’s degree in pharmacology.
Both potential career paths turned out to be detours on her journey to family medicine.
“I loved the science behind pharmacy,” she said, “but we didn’t get a lot of interactions with actual patients. In research, I missed people in general. Research can be isolating. I had a lot of great colleagues, but I missed the clinical piece.”
Interest in prevention led her to family medicine
After earning her master’s degree, Hurd continued to work as a laboratory research technician in the University of Vermont’s Department of Neurological Sciences as she pursued a certificate in integrative health. The certificate program focused on preventing and managing chronic diseases.
“I learned a lot about culinary medicine and treatments used in other countries, like ayurveda, acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine,” she said, “so I got really interested in preventive medicine. Going into medical school, I knew primary care was what I wanted to do.”
Discovering the family medicine community
Hurd jumped into family medicine leadership immediately, leading Vermont’s family medicine interest group (FMIG) during her first year of medical school. Working with her FMIG led her to the AAFP’s National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students (now FUTURE) between her first and second years.
Her first trip to the conference was focused on the numerous workshops and educational sessions. She also learned about career options in family medicine and took programming ideas home to her FMIG.
“The first year of medical school is like a fire hose,” Hurd said, “and you’re so tired at the end of it. You’re thinking, ‘Why did I choose to do this?’ because it’s not what you went into medicine to do. It’s all classroom all the time. You’re sitting there and people are spewing information at you. By the end, you haven’t had any patient interactions. Going to National Conference was great because there were students who were further along in their education, and residents and attendings who were doing amazing things in family medicine. I came back excited and invigorated, and knew this was the specialty for me. These were my people.”
An Emerging Leader in family medicine
Though Hurd left pharmacy and lab work behind, her research skills are still being put to good use. During that first National Conference trip, she was a scholar in the AAFP Foundation’s Emerging Leader Institute (ELI), which pairs students and residents with family medicine mentors for year-long research projects. Hurd’s award-winning project involved developing a culinary medicine program for medical students.
Make FUTURE part of your career plan
Don’t miss these important deadlines for medical students and residents:
- April 1: Apply for the poster competition.
- April 15: Save money when you register early.
- May 1: Apply for scholarships to offset costs.
She said her project was “the icing on the cake,” but the focus of the program is learning to be a leader and project manager.
“Sometimes we overlook how much of a leader a physician needs to be,” she said. “Regardless of where you end up practicing, you’re going to be the leader of a team. You will work with medical assistants, nurses, students, residents and other physicians. It’s important to work on your leadership style, your communication style. The monthly ELI sessions launched me into thinking about what makes a good team and what makes an effective leader.”
Serving the specialty at the national level
After her second year of medical school, Hurd attended the conference to accept an award for her ELI project. She returned last year to participate in programming in her role as a regional coordinator in the AAFP’s FMIG Network. She also was elected student chair of FUTURE 2026, which will be July 30-August 1 in Kansas City, Mo.
Kate Tian, MD, a graduate of the University of Vermont Family Medicine Residency, encouraged Hurd to run for student chair when Tian was the 2025 event’s resident chair.
“She started her residency when I started medical school and has been a mentor to me,” Hurd said. “She was the one who pointed me toward leadership roles. She said, ‘Oh my God, you should do this. You’ve been to FUTURE so many times. You love what it stands for.’ I loved the idea of being involved with the workshop selection and making it a great experience for students.”
FUTURE is the site of the AAFP’s student and resident congresses, where attendees debate policy resolutions and elect their peers to national leadership roles.
“Family medicine is unique because there is so much student and resident involvement in the AAFP,” she said. “You can have a voice in national leadership. Those roles offer great learning opportunities about how national leadership functions and how to get things done. You’re helping create the stance the AAFP is taking on national issues.”
Looking ahead to residency
FUTURE also is a place to meet with program directors, coordinators and residents in an expo hall filled with hundreds of exhibitors from across the country.
Hurd, whose fiancé is a pediatrics resident at Vermont, will learn where she will continue her training on March 20, Match Day.
“There are people that love doing niche things and knowing everything there is to know about one area,” she said. “I am not one of those people. That’s what brought me to family medicine in the first place, and I am going to be most invigorated by programs that do everything. I want to be a full-spectrum family medicine doc who has the training to go anywhere, do anything. So, those are the kind of programs I was looking at.”