I started my career in traditional, full-scope family medicine with OB, and, led by the needs of my patients and an insatiable curiosity about non-traditional healing methods, I studied acupuncture and medical hypnosis. I wove these skills into my practice and built a career by specializing in the use of food, movement, mind-body medicine and supplements to help thousands of patients improve their health. With my organizational and leadership skills, I have designed and implemented integrative medicine programs for large hospital systems throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts.
As the burden of chronic disease in the U.S. increases, my mission is to continue to use this knowledge and my skills to improve health care with a stronger focus on prevention and wellness. With the AAFP’s renewed commitment to lifestyle medicine and physician wellness, my skills are a perfect fit for the AAFP Board of Directors.
Kathleen N. Mueller, MD, FAAFP, serves as the system director for integrative medicine and cancer survivorship for Nuvance, a seven-hospital health system in Connecticut and southeastern New York. She is the lead editor of Core Content Review of Family Medicine, a medical education program written by and for family physicians. She is a proud graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and stayed at UConn to complete her residency.
Dr. Mueller began her career as an employee at a five-physician practice with family medicine and obstetrics in her hometown of Windsor, Connecticut. Frustrated with the lack of resources for pain management for her patients, she sought advanced training in medical hypnosis and acupuncture. She then transitioned to her own two-physician, direct integrative and primary care practice, where she served her community for 10 years. She speaks on health, wellness and integrative medicine topics both regionally and nationally, and led the expansion of integrative services as medical director for the Center for Integrative Medicine at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.
After completing a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona in 2012, Dr. Mueller was selected as the first chief wellness officer of Saint Francis Hospital. She is passionate about improving the health and well-being of those who serve in health care. Immediately post-pandemic, she was tasked with developing a regional integrative medicine program for the Trinity Health of New England system and served as the director of the Centers for Integrative Medicine & Health for three years. Woven all through her career has been her work with the Connecticut AFP and AAFP. It is with and through these organizations that she honed her leadership and public speaking skills, and fueled her desire to help transform our disease care system to a health care system that focuses on wellness and prevention. Because of her own unique career, mentoring new physicians is also part of her mission, helping them to design and follow their own special path in family medicine. She is married with three children and loves to hike, garden, sew and read.