About

Kathryn Watkins, who goes by Kate, grew up in Clemmons, NC and had the benefit of an excellent public school education while living there. She was active in the marching band in high school and continued that at Duke University, where she was a BN Duke Scholar and served on the Duke Chapel Advisory Board. In undergraduate, she majored in Biology and the History of Medicine with a minor in Chemistry and an undergraduate thesis in Global Health, for which she received the honor of Graduating with Distinction. Before starting medical school she worked several jobs, ranging from poll worker to 2020 census enumerator to Spanish tutor, but the most impactful was a two-year Americorps fellowship at a rural federally-qualified health center in Eastern NC. During her Americorps term, she was mentored by an intelligent, compassionate, and dedicated Primary Care Internist who sparked in her the desire to pursue IM training. Kate also identified a love of complex care coordination, interprofessional education, and working with underinsured and Spanish-speaking patients while at the health center. After completing Americorps she matriculated to UNC School of Medicine and discovered a particular interest in nephrology and hospital medicine. While in medical school, she has been active in rural medical opportunities, Campos medical Spanish training, volunteering at student clinics, and co-founding an interprofessional medical student interest group. Currently, she is applying into Internal Medicine residency programs with an interest in pursuing general nephrology. As an IM Medical Student Chief, she is excited to further develop her love of medical education by leading IM clerkship didactics and working with her fellow student chiefs to research effective pedagogical techniques to prepare third year medical students for their IM OSCE.