Kristen Shields, D.O.

Hospitalist Kristen Shields, D.O., was inspired to pursue a career in medicine by her experiences as a teen helping to care for a close family member with advanced lymphoma. For the San Gabriel Valley native, joining City of Hope is a sort of homecoming: Over the years, she has been a volunteer, a research assistant and a medical student on clinical rotations for the California-based hospital system. 

Dr. Shields earned her medical degree from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona. She then completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Active in research throughout her medical and postgraduate training, she co-authored a peer-reviewed study in the journal Laboratory Investigations demonstrating a new technique for detecting lymphoma in tissue samples. She has also presented at an American College of Physicians regional meeting about research into fainting among patients with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.

Over the years, Dr. Shields has enjoyed volunteering with under-served communities. She helped provide free medical care to unhoused persons in Santa Barbara as a volunteer for Doctors Without Walls and has also done work with Indigenous and API communities in the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire.