Kristin Heitman, Ph.D.

Kristin Heitman, Ph.D., serves as ONHM’s Senior Advisor and Historian. She is responsible for developing and implementing ONHM policies, supporting the ONHM Advisory Committee, and leading and conducting ONHM historical projects.                                                 

Dr. Heitman earned her Ph.D. with certification in the History and Philosophy of Science from The Johns Hopkins University, where she held graduate fellowships from the National Science Foundation and Johns Hopkins (as a George E. Owen Fellow) as well as an honorary fellowship from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. After four years teaching logic and the history of philosophy at Coppin State College (now University), an Historically Black College in Baltimore, Maryland, she joined the Office of Research at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) as the senior program analyst for its intramural research program and Institutional Review Board. In 2001, she became USU’s Director of Intramural Programs and Research Development. In 2006, she moved to USU’s full-time faculty in the Department of Medical History, where she served as the educational program director. She has been a summer scholar at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London (2006-2008) and at Birkbeck College, University of London, (2014-2015). In 2014, she was awarded the John Locke Medal in the History and Philosophy of Medicine by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London, UK.

From 2015 to 2021, Dr. Heitman served as a contract senior scientist, editor, and manager for biomedical research programs at USU, including the Consortium for Human and Military Performance; Rehab, Refit, Return to Duty; and the Center for Biotechnology.