Kristen Dillon, M.D.

Kristen Dillon, MD, FAAFP Dr. Dillon serves as the Chief Medical Officer for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. In that role, she advises on clinical care and rural health in support of the Office’s programs and of other initiatives across the Department of Health and Human Services. Her areas of expertise include maternal health, mental illness and substance use disorders, health systems redesign, clinical quality improvement, and building resilient, trauma-informed teams and organizations. She is a family physician with 25 years’ clinical experience in Colorado and Oregon. Her background in rural primary care includes clinic, nursing home, obstetrics, inpatient, and emergency department services. After transitioning her focus to policy and administrative work, Dr. Dillon spent the past 8 years in leadership roles with the Oregon Medicaid program, the US Congress, and the State of Oregon’s COVID Response. She graduated with honors from the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco and from Dartmouth College, with a double major in Chemistry and Asian Studies (Updated 11.21.25)