Kathleen Klink, M.D., FAAFP

Dr. Kathleen Klink currently holds the position of Special Lecturer at Columbia University Irvine Medical Center, Center for Family and Community Medicine. She is currently completing a contemplative medicine fellowship through the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, an evidence-based twelve-month training for physicians, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants who want to integrate and apply a contemplative approach to their practice of medicine.
She most recently served as Senior Advisory to the Chief Officer and Chief of Health Professions Education in the Office of Academic Affiliations, Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated health system in the United States. In these roles Dr. Klink provided vital leadership and served in an advisory capacity for VA’s clinical education portfolio. Clinical education of health professionals, one of four statutory missions of the VA, supports more than 125,000 students and trainees, including over 40,000 medical and dental residents annually. Clinicians representing more than forty different health professions train in the VA to provide care for, and advance systems changes needed for the high risk and high need veteran population.
Dedicating her career to advancing care for underserved people, in addition to her VA service, Dr. Klink has served as Director of the Center for Family and Community Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chief of Service for Family Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (2008), Director of the Division of Medicine and Dentistry in the Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Medical Director of the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care and Medical Director, Coney Island Community Health Center, Brooklyn, NY.
Dr. Klink holds a medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine (now Miller School of Medicine), is board certified in family medicine and holds the degree of Fellow, American Academy of Family Medicine.