Historic Achievement for Dr. Karen Kim

Dr. Karen E. Kim, MD, MS will become the first Korean-Asian American woman to hold the position of Dean of Medicine at a U.S. medical school. Commencing September 1, 2023, she will officially assume the role of Dean at the Penn State College of Medicine. As the first and only Asian American woman to hold this position among 153 LCME-accredited U.S. medical schools, Dr. Kim’s appointment is a monumental step towards greater equality and fairness within the highest levels of leadership in academic medical institutions.

Dr. Kim has over 20 years of experience in research, advocacy, and civic engagement to improve health equity for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and other immigrant communities. She is Vice Provost for Research at the University of Chicago, the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Medicine, Associate Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of the Center for Asian Health Equity – an innovative community-research partnership between the Asian Health Coalition and the University of Chicago Medicine.

With extensive expertise in community-based participatory research, implementation science, and minority health research, Dr. Kim has focused on the rigorous development and evaluation of multi-level strategies to advance health equity supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Minority Health, and the National Institutes of Health.

Through her leadership, the Center for Asian Health Equity (CAHE) is at the forefront of tackling a variety of complex public health and equity-related issues that disproportionately affect immigrant communities of color. CAHE’s programmatic portfolio includes cancer screening and prevention, chronic and infectious disease prevention, behavioral and mental health awareness, engagement and recruitment of populations historically under-represented in research, language access evaluation, health-related data disaggregation, and clinical trial research.