Thomas Dean Kirsch (born 1957) is an American physician, scientist, and writer whose career has focused on disaster preparedness and response. He has been described as "...an expert in disaster research, planning and response, and disaster and wilderness medicine... both nationally and internationally".

Personal life and education

Kirsch was born in Phoenix, Arizona to E. Eugene Kirsch and Nancy Jane Kirsch, the second of four children. The family moved almost annually during his childhood until settling in Omaha, Nebraska where he attended high school, college, and medical school. His first exposure to a disaster occurred during high school when he volunteered with the American Red Cross after the Omaha tornado. After graduating from

Creighton University Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...

in 1980 with a B.A. in fine arts (painting), he then received his medical degree from the

University of Nebraska Medical Center The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1869 and chartered as a private medical college in 1881, UNMC became p ...

in 1984, followed by a master's in public health (M.P.H.) from the

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Johns Hopkins University, a private university, private research university primarily based in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded as the Johns Hopkins ...

in 1986. His clinical training included a surgical internship at St. Vincent's Medical Center in New York City (1985); a Preventive Medicine residency at Johns Hopkins (1987) and an emergency medicine residency at the Georgetown/George Washington Universities' Combined program completed in 1990. Kirsch is married to Celene Domitrovich and has two sons, Thomson M. and William D. He is an avid canyoneer and long-distance hiker who completed a 1,000-mile walk on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016 and has hiked over 1,000 miles in the Grand Canyon.

Career

Kirsch skipped his medical school graduation ceremony to provide medical care in a Cambodian refugee camp near Aranyaprathet, Thailand during the summer of 1984. As a result switched from a surgical training program to pursue a Masters of Public Health (MPH) Johns Hopkins in preparation for a career in humanitarian response.

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

(1986–87) Kirsch worked for the Expanded Program for Immunizations, mostly in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar) and the Pacific region (Philippines, Papua New Guinea). Georgetown/

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

Emergency Medicine Residency (1987–90) Kirsch completed clinical training in emergency medicine because the skills most suited humanitarian and global health work.

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

(1990-1995) He joined the faculty of the Department of Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine and the Department of International Health in the School of Hygiene and Public Health focusing on global emergency medicine and humanitarian response and included work in Trinidad and Tobago, Ethiopia, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Myanmar. He wrote foundational articles on developing emergency medicine training globally. Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago (1995-1998) Kirsch served as Chair of Emergency Medicine at Michael Reese, starting the same week as the Chicago heatwave killed more than 700 people. With Dr. Teresita Hogan he co-founded the Resurrection-Michael Reese Emergency Medicine residency (now 'Resurrection Emergency Medicine') in 1997.

(2004-2016) In 2004 Kirsch returned to Johns Hopkins University, eventually becoming a full professor in 2010 with appointments in the School of Medicine, Bloomberg School of Public Health and Whiting School of Engineering. During that time, he served as the Director of Operations for Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response (now Center for Humanitarian Health) He taught emergency medicine, disaster medicine and public health and founded the School of Medicine Austere Medicine Course and the Hopkins Hospital Emergency Airway Course. His research focused on better measuring the effect of disaster response using quality-assurance techniques and he worked with engineers to assess the impact of earthquakes on the ability of hospitals to deliver care. Uniformed Services University (2016-current) Kirsch became the Director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health and as a Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics. He holds additional academic appointments as an adjunct professor in the George Washington School of Medicine and the

. During his career he has worked and consulted for numerous organizations including the

Centers for Disease Control The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

Pan American Health Organization The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) in charge of international health cooperation in the Americas. It fosters technical cooperation among member countries to fight communicable and non ...

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

, the U.S. Departments of Defense,

Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Im ...

Commerce Commerce is the organized Complex system, system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions that directly or indirectly contribute to the smooth, unhindered large-scale exchange (distribution through Financial transaction, transactiona ...

and

State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and

Canadian Red Cross The Canadian Red Cross Society ()Earthquake Engineering Research Institute The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is a leading technical society in dissemination of earthquake risk and earthquake engineering research both in the U.S. and globally. EERI members include researchers, geologists, geotechnical ...

and the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.

Private sector and family life (1999–2004)

He moved to Phoenix, AZ to be near his family as his sons grew, taking a position as Vice President and Medical Director of a hospital management company and serving as faculty wit
Maricopa Medical Center Emergency Medicine, Phoenix.

Academic achievements

Dr. Kirsch's research was recognized by the

American College of Emergency Physicians The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is a professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the United States. ACEP publishes the '' Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physi ...

' first Disaster Medical Science Award in 2013. He has served both as an editor and/or an editorial board member for the journals '' Annals of Emergency Medicine'', ''Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness'', ''American Journal of Disaster Medicine'', ''PLoS Current Disasters'', and ''Military Medicine''. He has served on expert panels and spoken widely nationally and internationally to groups including the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

National Academies of Science The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, Engineering and Medicine,

American Medical Association The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...

, and Global Competitiveness Forum in settings including Azerbaijan, Berlin, Brussels, Canada, Jerusalem, Riyadh, Taipei, Tel Aviv, Trinidad and Tobago. As a writer, Kirsch has published over 150 scientific practice and policy articles, book chapters, and a book. He has written numerous editorials, including for the Washington Post and Health Affairs. His creative non-fiction work includes a devastating personal essay on providing care after the Haiti earthquake and a series of articles for the Washington Post of his experience during the Haiti response. In 2020 he published personal essays in The Atlantic, Washington Post and the PCT Communicator.

Disaster work

Kirsch volunteered for the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

from 1992 to 2017 serving as the Medical Advisor (2000-2010), and on the Scientific Advisory Council (2006-2016). He responded to numerous disasters with the Red Cross including to New York City for the 9-11 terrorist attacks and to New Orleans for

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

. He has responded many other major disasters as a scientist and health provider including hurricanes

Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

(NYC, 2012), Harvey (Houston, 2017) Haiyan (Philippines, 2013), earthquakes in

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

(2010),

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

(2010),

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

(2011), and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

(2015), the Pakistan floods (2010) and the

Ebola epidemic Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infe ...

in Liberia in 2014-15.

Awards and honors

In 2014 he was recognized by President Obama in a White House ceremony to honor, 'Heroes in Healthcare Fighting Ebola. Following Hurricane Katrina, he testified before both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives., Additional awards include:

Honors

2006 - Fellow (MN'06), The Explorers Club, New York City, NY 2006 -

Delta Omega Delta Omega Society () is an international honorary society for studies in public health. It was founded in 1924 at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. The society has chartered 122 chapters ...

Public Health Honor Society, Alpha Chapter 2012 - Honoree, American Red Cross Day, White House 2014 - Honoree, Heroes in Healthcare Fighting Ebola, President Obama, White House 2018 - Inaugural Address for the Kingfisher Institute, Creighton University 2020 - Keynote speaker, International Preparedness and Response to Emergencies and Disasters (IPRED) meeting, Tel Aviv, Israel

Awards

1990 - Service Award, District of Columbia Hospital Association 1995 - Disaster Services Professional Service Award, American Red Cross 2013 - Inaugural Disaster Medical Science Award, American College of Emergency Physicians 2013 - 'Most impactful research publication for global emergency medicine.' Society of Academic Emergency Medicine International Committee. 2014 - American Red Cross Clara Barton Honor Award for Voluntary Leadership

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirsch, Thomas D. American emergency physicians Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences faculty Johns Hopkins University faculty University of Nebraska Medical Center alumni Creighton University alumni American public health doctors 1957 births Living people Hikers