Kristen Grant

Kristen Grant grew up in St. Louis and graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Biology. After two years teaching in the Marshall Islands and one year as a special education teacher in New Hampshire, she returned to pursue her M.D. at Washington University in St. Louis.

As outreach coordinator for the Community Health in Partnership Services (CHIPS) clinic – which serves as a permanent health home for St. Louis’ under- and uninsured communities – Kristen recruits student volunteers, coordinates logistics, facilitates weekend screenings around the city, and leads fundraising efforts with great success. She revitalized a neglected student selective course for first-year medical students on CHIPS, showcasing health care initiatives in under-served areas and inspiring incoming students to see medicine as a service to the community. Additionally, she established clinical shadowing opportunities and facilitated student participation in screening outreach and patient education.

Kristen has also demonstrated her passion for community enrichment through education. She has served as a site leader for Healthy Eating nutrition classes, an instructor for Students Teaching AIDS to Students (STATS) and as a teacher and curriculum developer for the Health Profession Recruitment Education Program (HPREP). She also leads the Family Medicine Interest Group and has scheduled several speaker presentations to emphasize the importance of primary preventative care as a specialty. Kristen and two of her peers received a Social Change Grant from Washington University, allowing her to return to the Marshall Islands where her team developed a culturally sensitive nutrition and health curriculum for the schools.

Tara Skebba, Kristen’s nominator and fellow Washington University medical student, said, “I have no doubt Kristen will make a tremendous impact where she lives and practices, and St. Louis is lucky to have her untiring dedication to social justice and insatiable desire to meet unmet needs. Community service is her way of life: it is how she chooses to spend her free time, is the reason she is training to be a physician and will be the hallmark of her daily practice. Every responsibility Kristen has taken on, she has done so selflessly with a passion for the community she is a part of, with compassion for the people she serves and with the goal of improving someone else’s life.”