Biography
Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett is the Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center (BMC), an Associate Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, an Affiliate at Harvard’s Center for Primary Care, and a Health Innovators Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a highly fellowship that catalyzes leaders to improve US health care. Prior to joining BMC in 2009, Dr. Gergen Barnett attended Yale University School of Medicine, worked at the National Institutes of Health, and completed a fellowship studying a model of group prenatal care for women in low-income communities. At BMC, she has served in multiple leadership roles including as Residency Program Director, Medical Director, and co-founder of the joint Family Medicine-Psychiatry Residency. Dr. Gergen Barnett is a national expert in health care policy and delivery, medical training and community engagement. She has served as a PI and co-PI on multiple grants, including a MassHealth grant to create and evaluate addiction training for family medicine residents, a Pfizer grant to study the efficacy of Paxlovid in high risk children, a CTSI grant to evaluate best practices for hospital based youth advisory boards, a PCORI grant to create and evaluate integrative medicine group visits for chronic pain, and an NIH grant to study the efficacy of restorative justice and storytelling on healing medical mistrust. She directed the BU School of Medicine Healers’ Art Course and regularly supervises medical students in her clinical practice. Her primary clinical interests are behavioral health, trauma informed care, gender affirming care, women's and reproductive health, and holistic medicine. Finally, Dr. Gergen Barnett is involved in local and state health policy addressing health inequities, national policy addressing primary care delivery, and is a regular contributor to The Boston Globe, Boston Public Radio, and multiple television outlets.