New faculty member taking on the role of the Service Line Chief
On October 31, 2023, Jungjin Kim, MD, joined the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Adult Mental Health Division as an Assistant Professor. He is taking on the role of the Mental Health & Addiction Service Line (MHASL) Chief and serving as academic lead for the Department’s clinics.
Jungjin works in a dyad partnership with the Executive for Mental Health & Addiction, Beth Heinz, MSW, MHA. Together with the Vice Presidents for MHASL, Lew Zeidner and Chris Beamish, this team develops and maintains clinical programs consistent with the organizational goals and objectives of M Health Fairview. As a faculty member, Jungjin is also able to communicate the specialist needs of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences to service line leadership and advocate for the academic missions of the department.
Being the Service Line Chief gives Jungjin (pictured here) an opportunity to help create clinical innovation and to have a wider impact, both in the department and throughout the hospital. “My personal interest is making behavioral health and addiction more of an integral part of our overall system,” he said. “It’s hard to take good care of patients without fully addressing their mental and behavioral wellness.” The biggest challenge Jungjin believes he faces will be to, “collaborate with all the different stakeholders in measured and thoughtful ways to provide the best care for our patients.”
Extensive experience
He was most recently the Medical Director of the Addiction Inpatient Program and the Addiction Psychiatry Consult Service at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, and a part-time correctional psychiatrist for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. “My previous experiences helped me understand the importance of collaboration in a team-based care setting and of leading with prudence, respect, and emotional intelligence, paying attention to how other people are thinking and feeling,” he said. “And I can easily picture what it’s like to be a frontline physician in different clinical settings.”
Jungjin received his MD from the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University in Syracuse and his BA in Biological Sciences (with honors) from the University of Chicago. He then completed his psychiatry residency at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, followed by a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at Harvard Mass General Brigham and then a forensic psychiatry fellowship at SUNY Upstate Medical University. While at Harvard, Jungjin was a clinical instructor in psychiatry and was heavily involved in teaching fellows, residents, and medical students.
Passion for academic psychiatry
The University of Minnesota interested Jungjin because he wanted to continue his passion for academic psychiatry. “I like keeping abreast of clinical innovation, research, and the exchange of new ideas with smart, stimulating colleagues,” he said. “The University seemed to provide just that in a collegial, welcoming environment.” Another important factor was that his wife, Hemin, is training as a resident in the U of M's Department of Dermatology.
From 2017 to 2019, Jungjin completed a two-year Diversity Leadership Fellowship awarded by the American Psychiatric Association. “As an addiction psychiatrist treating those who are marginalized and stigmatized by addiction, my overarching clinical philosophy is to do what’s right ethically and morally,” he said. “DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] is a helpful framework for furthering that. It’s very much baked in.”
When he has free time, Jungjin enjoys trying new restaurants, taking walks, jogging, and listening to podcasts. His three-year-old twin girls also keep him and his wife busy. “We love exploring museums with the girls” he said.
