Dr. Kemia Sarraf brings decades of experience in healthcare - in public-health, patient care, and medical education - 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” to friends and clients alike) 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 for physicians and leaders experiencing high levels of severe burnout, vicarious trauma, and moral injury. Her background in public health and trauma led her to create unique trauma-responsive coaching, leadership, culture-change, and facilitation training and professional development programs. These programs are currently being deployed across multiple industries in both 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, where she is charged with bringing a trauma-responsive approach to institutional Justice, Equity and Anti-Racism work. She is engaged in multiple, national leadership initiatives and recently served as co-director of ACGME Equity Matters.

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 twenty-five years, and the couple reside on a small working farm in Central Illinois with their four sons and "too many critters to count.”