Dr. Kemia Sarraf brings decades of healthcare experience to her trauma-responsive Keynote speaking, consultation, interactive engagement, and small group facilitation. Her presentations are deeply interpersonal, engaging and focused on narrative healing. She weaves complex neuroscience into her storytelling, making materials both accessible and actionable.
Dr. Sarraf (“Dr. K” as she is most often known) completed her Medical Degree and Master of Public Health at the University of Utah School of Medicine, and her residency in Internal Medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine. The arc of her career has included patient care, public health program development, nonprofit leadership, business ownership, multiple board positions, and farming.
Dr. K founded Lodestar in 2016, specializing in trauma-responsive coaching methods for physician experiencing high levels of severe burnout, vicarious trauma, and moral injury. Her background in public health and trauma inspired her to create advanced training programs in trauma-responsive coaching, leadership, culture-change, facilitation and professional development. Lodestar programs are currently deployed across industries in both the public and private sector, providing advanced leadership training and organizational culture development.
Dr. K serves in an adjunct faculty position at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine with dual appointments in the Dept. of Medical Humanities and in the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, bringing a trauma-informed lens and trauma-responsive approach to institutional Justice, Equity and Anti-Racism work.
A captivating storyteller and powerful keynote speaker renowned for her boundless compassion, wisdom, and humor, Dr. K’s process guides audiences through the pain of collective experiences into aspirational hope about what can be built. And she does so with both gentle humor and searing honesty. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her leadership and vision, and was an AMA Women Physicians Inspiration Award Honoree in 2021.
Kemia and her physician-husband have been married for more than twenty years, and the couple reside on a small working farm in Central Illinois with their four sons and "too many critters to count.”