Kimberley Steele, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Kimberley Eden Steele joined ARPA-H in November 2023 from The Lymphatic Education and Research Network (LE&RN), where she supported lymphatic research efforts as special projects director. Prior to that, Steele was associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed a minimally invasive and bariatric surgical fellowship at Johns Hopkins and joined the faculty, rising to associate professor while earning a doctorate in Clinical Investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as well as certification with the American Board of Obesity Medicine. She is recognized internationally for her contributions to research on bariatric surgery, the gut-brain axis, and neuroimaging in obesity.

After serving as a surgeon at Johns Hopkins for over 14 years, Steele shifted her focus to the investigation of lymphatic disease, motivated by her son’s diagnosis of a rare lymphatic anomaly. Steele has spent the last 7 years working tirelessly with clinicians, scientists, medical students, and advocacy organizations to advance the field of lymphatic medicine, in the process establishing a non-profit, the Collaborative Research Advocacy for Vascular Anomalies Network (CaRAVAN), to coordinate and support research.