Biography
Kristen was born and raised in the Finger Lakes area of Upstate New York, the traditional homeland of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. She came to Chinle, Arizona as a Pediatrician for Indian Health Services in 2001. She joined the Center for Indigenous Health in June of 2015 as the Study Physician for the Infectious Disease team on the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico working on projects including vaccine clinical trials, active bacterial surveillance, and collaborating with Indian Health Services to combine public health service to the Shiprock service unit through community outreach.
Prior to joining the Center, she served Chief Resident at University of Chicago Comer Childrens Hospital and also served as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Roessler then served as a Staff Physician with Indian Health Services for several years in Chinle, Arizona. Always passionate about public health, Kristen went on to found and be the acting Medical Director of the Durango 9R School Based Health Centers in Durango, Colorado, as well as founding pediatric programs in the underserved neighboring communities of Cortez, Colorado and Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
She received her M.D. from the Jacobs School of Medicine in Buffalo, New York and completed her Pediatric Residency at the University of Chicago Comer Childrens Hospital.
Kristen lives in Durango, Colorado with her partner, 3 sons and dogs. She is an avid outdoor enthusiastic and enjoys trail running, paddle boarding, snowboarding, and backpacking and camping with her family. She also loves to attempt high country vegetable farming, and reading.