Dr. Katherine McKenzie

Katherine C. McKenzie, MD, FACP is an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine and the founder and director of the Yale Center for Asylum Medicine (YCAM). She teaches students and residents and is a physician advocate for human rights.

In her role at YCAM, Dr. McKenzie performs forensic evaluations of asylum seekers at Yale and in detention facilities, and testifies as an expert witness in immigration court for individuals referred by law schools, human rights organizations, and immigration attorneys. She leads the asylum medicine teaching program for trainees and faculty at Yale, mentors clinicians across North America, and lectures widely on topics of asylum, detention, and physician advocacy. She is an expert advisor for Physicians for Human Rights and serves on the boards of the Society for Refugee Healthcare Providers, Project Access New Haven, and Integrated Refugee and Immigrants Services. She is involved in medical-legal partnerships and collaborates with attorneys on civil litigation and advocacy that supports human rights. She is a founder and director of the Society of Asylum Medicine and a member of Yale Refugee Health Program.

She has written reviews, clinical case reports, and opinion essays in publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal, Time magazine and CNN, among many others.

At Yale, she has received the Leonard B. Tow Award for Humanism in Medicine, the Charles W. Bohmfalk Prizes for Teaching in Clinical Sciences, and the Faculty Award for Achievement in Clinical Care. She has been named a “Top Doctor” for many years by Connecticut Magazine. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and has been certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine since 1995.