Mentor Spotlight

This is unpublished

Karin Nelson, MD, Mshs

Karin Nelson photoProfessor of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine

Adjunct Professor, Health Services and Population Health, University of Washington

Interim Section Head, VA Puget Sound Health Care System

Director, Primary Care Analytics Team (PCAT) for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Primary Care (OPC)

Research Interests: Patient-centered medical home, diabetes self-management, chronic disease management, community health workers

Opportunities for fellows: Dr. Nelson has provided mentorship to numerous trainees from the medical student to the PhD post-doctoral fellow and Assistant Professor level. She was nominated for the 2015 and 2020 UW Department of Medicine Mentoring Award and for the 2019 UW School of Medicine Excellence in Mentoring Women Faculty Award.

Mentoring philosophy: Mentoring needs to include some knowledge of the whole person -- holistically understanding the mentees goals for their personal life and professional career. I strive to help mentee develop their own scholarly path with individual goals.  Mentees require diverse types of assistance from mentors, including advice, advocacy, making connections, providing opportunities, building skills, and fostering independence. I love mentoring because it’s a two-way street of knowledge exchange and idea generation.