Dr. Steven Kirkhorn has served as the Director of the Minneapolis Veterans Administration (VA) Health Care System since 2013. He is also part of the Veterans Health Administration of the Veterans Administration nation Occupational/Environmental Medicine National Consult Program which provides consulting services to the other occupational health departments in the VA system. He serves as the Environmental Health Champion at a regional level, a national program to enroll veterans in Environmental Health Registries based upon their service exposures.

Dr. Kirkhorn received his undergraduate degree in zoology, medical degree, and master’s in public health in environmental health from the University of Minnesota. He completed his training in Family Practice and later in Occupational Medicine and is board certified in Family Practice and Occupational Medicine. Dr. Kirkhorn is a Fellow of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Previously, Dr. Kirkhorn was the Medical Director of the National Farm Medicine Center and the NIOSH National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Safety and Health, one of the ten NIOSH Agricultural Health and Safety Centers, and Chair of Occupational Health for the Marshfield Clinic from 2003-2013. Presently, he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Kirkhorn has been active over the years as a member of state and national public health committees and task forces, NIOSH review panels, and various non-profit organizations’ board of directors.

Dr. Kirkhorn is published in the area of agricultural respiratory disease, community health issues of animal confinement operations, and agricultural ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders. He served as the Executive Editor of the Journal of Agromedicine from 2004-2012, a peer-reviewed journal indexed by National Library of Medicine and continues to be an associate editor. His interests are in rural occupational and environmental health, medical center occupational health, service-connected environmental exposures in veterans, issues affecting veterans’ return to work after active duty, agricultural medicine, and the interaction of personal health and occupational health.