University of Wisconsin–Madison
Katherine Bakke

Katherine Bakke

MD, MPH

Assistant Professor (CHS)

Katherine Bakke

Biography

Katherine Bakke, MD, MPH is a general surgeon at UW. She studied religion at Bryn Mawr College, with a special interest in pilgrimage stories and conversion experiences. Throughout her medical training and practice, she has been fascinated by the defining moments, both big and small, that transform a person into a doctor. She started writing as a medical student, and eventually served as a student editor and author for Iatrogenesis: Essays on Becoming a Physician. As a resident and now as an attending, she has published stories in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics and editorial commentary in Surgery. She loves the opportunity interact with patients from diverse walks of life, and she is always surprised, and humbled, when a patient tells her they have read one of her narratives. Their reflection on her writing is a reminder of the connective, healing power of narrative.  

Inclusion for women in surgery involves re-envisioning the surgeon archetype

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0039606021000921?via%3Dihub

Journeying to a Time of Death

https://theinterstitium.home.blog/2020/06/01/journeying-to-a-time-of-death

But I Love My Big Hair!:  An Essay on the Discouragement and Difficulty of Becoming a Woman Surgeon

https://nibjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/VOICES_2020_METOO_FINAL.pdf

Voices in Medicine Podcast:  The Difficulty in Becoming a Woman Surgeon

https://www.voicesinmedicine.com/episode_003_bakke

Focus on the Light

https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/focus-on-the-light-2016-wci-scholarship-3rd-place

Iatrogenesis:  Essays on Becoming a Physician

https://books.google.com/books/umichpress?vid=ISBN9781607854814&redir_esc=y&hl=en