Lynn McKinley-Grant, MD, FAAD, is an associate professor of dermatology at Howard University College of Medicine and former vice chair of Diversity and Community Engagement in Dermatology at Duke University School of Medicine. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed her internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, her dermatology residency at New York University, and a Molecular Biology Fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. McKinley-Grant is board-certified in dermatology and internal medicine, and is an author, researcher, and lecturer.
As an innovator in medicine, Dr. McKinley-Grant worked at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon, Africa, early in her medical career. She founded the Bellevue Hospital Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) clinic and researched and identified the skin protein filaggrin while at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. McKinley-Grant continues to be passionate about new ideas that improve the quality of health care in underrepresented minorities by training doctors to make accurate diagnoses in skin of color.
Dr. McKinley-Grant has always trained residents and has mentored many students, residents, and faculty. She is currently serving as the president of the Skin of Color Society (2019–2021). She is a member of the National Medical Association, the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society of Investigative Dermatology, the American Dermatology Association, and the Women's Dermatology Society. She is also the former chair of the diversity and mentoring committee of the American Academy of Dermatology.
Dr. McKinley-Grant has practiced dermatology for over 25 years in the Washington, DC, area and in Durham, North Carolina. Since 1992, she has been listed in Washingtonian Magazine as one of the Top Doctors in the area, as selected by other physicians. Dr. McKinley-Grant is the co-senior editor of VisualDx: Essential Dermatology in Pigmented Skin. She has authored several publications and has contributed to the second edition of the textbook Dermatology for Skin of Color by Paul Kelly MD, and Susan C. Taylor, MD.
In 2013, she co-founded the Insight Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation, critical thinking, and creative problem solving through art-based initiatives and programs, from medical training to business management. She has developed art and medicine curricula to train health care providers to develop a tolerance for ambiguity and recognize the humanity in all patients through empathy and cultural competency. She is currently on the board of trustees of the Colby Art Museum.
