Katherine (Kat) Moon ’24 has built her education at the intersection of science and service and is now continuing her schooling at Harvard Medical School. Kat double-majored in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B) and History of Science, Medicine, and Public Health (HSHM). Outside the classroom, she served as Co-Director of Social Services at Haven Free Clinic and Co-President of Yale Alzheimer’s Buddies as a Dwight Hall Summer Fellow, Community Response Fellow, and Member Group Fellow. Her years of community service with Dwight Hall have shaped her vision of medicine that starts with the whole person.
“My interest in medicine began early. It was always a dinner-table topic about what foods were healthy and why it was important to exercise [because my father had a heart condition],” Kat explained. “In high school, I started volunteering at a hospital and taking classes like anatomy, and I just fell in love.” At Yale, Kat’s love for science and medicine was further shaped by her work at the Haven Free Clinic, a free, student-run clinic offering primary care to New Haven residents. “I came into Yale knowing that I wanted to do molecular biophysics and biochemistry… but when I was first applying to Haven Free Clinic, the application listed classes [to contextualize the care we were providing],” Kat explained. “I realized that there was a whole world of medicine that I did not know about: the societal part. That’s how I ended up majoring in History of Science as well.”
Kat’s work at the Haven Free Clinic focused on medical care for patients and helping people meet all of their needs. “I noticed that our food pantry list needed updating [and patients were not able to access high-quality food].” She and her team took that as a call to action. “We continued to find these gaps, and we tried to improve them,” Kat stated. Kat also worked on securing grants for Haven Free Clinic’s Food as a Pharmacy program that offers emergency funding for community members who needed access to food.
“I became involved with Dwight Hall as a Member Group Fellow when I was President of Yale Alzheimer’s Buddies.” Yale Alzheimer’s Buddies is a Dwight Hall member group that connects students with elders in Alzheimer’s and dementia care facilities for weekly visits, combating the isolation that many residents experience. “When I became President, we were coming out of the COVID era, so we volunteered remotely doing FaceTime calls and sending gift boxes.”
She continued, “My year, we started going back to the nursing homes in person. We worked on a lot of transitional efforts,” Kat recalled. As a Member Group Fellow, Kat was supported with a structure of students and staff that were also working on community service projects and, through mentorship opportunities, she learned key leadership skills like delegating and team organization.”
“How I see medicine is that you are connecting with people… their lives exist in their communities, families, homes, food, education and it is all interconnected and it all impacts health,” Kat said. Kat shared that she had seen a patient who was housing insecure and had to sleep in a garage which led to a skin condition. “As a doctor, because people live in those contexts and there is a community behind each and every person, it’s important to understand a community,” Kat stated.
“There is a lot of movement towards holistic care,” Kat shared. In her current role at Close Concerns, a diabetes research and education group, she has seen how important it is to have psychologists and education specialists when treating people with diabetes. Taking a person’s story into account is key to successful treatment, Kat concluded.
At Harvard Medical School, Kat is looking forward to continuing her work towards a healthcare system that sees people in their entirety. She is particularly interested in preventive medicine, specifically in cardiology and endocrinology, as well as policy and social impact work. Some advice she shared for current undergraduate students is to get involved with the healthcare groups working in New Haven and look for mentorship with like-minded people.
Kat at a cardiology conference (2025)
Kat’s work and Dwight Hall experience embody the Grow pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, and Advance program delivery model, developing students’ intellectual, moral, civic, and creative capacities to the fullest with experiential learning, internships, fellowships, mentorships, and training.
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