Kate de Klerk, DO
Biography
I’m thrilled to be continuing my medical journey at Brown, surrounded by residents and faculty that share a passion for social justice and advocacy work, as well as a commitment to community engagement and academic excellence. It was clear to me right away that the Brown Family Medicine residency program offers an incredibly supportive, but also rigorous training environment, in which I’d be able to pursue my various clinical interests (obstetrics, LGBTQ care, addiction medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine) and be challenged both inside and outside the clinic. I’m also excited to be moving back to New England, where I went to college and worked for a number of years before starting medical school, and to take advantage of all that the great Ocean State has to offer! During medical school, advocacy was a major focus of my activity outside the classroom. My advocacy efforts were mostly focused on addressing health disparities in the LGBTQ+ community, and increasing access to affordable healthcare through adoption of a universal healthcare system. To address these and other issues impacting healthcare and osteopathic medical students, I was engaged locally with organizations like SNaHP and our PRIDE group on campus, but also worked with the national Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA), where I held a number of national leadership positions, and served as National President. Outside of medicine, I enjoy musical theater, British crime shows, amateur home improvement projects, fun shoes, sour beer tastings, and hanging out with my wife, Kelly. True to my upbringing in the Netherlands, I’m also an avid cycler and writer of comedic Dutch poems at the holidays.