Dr. Elizabeth Burns Joins Kalamazoo Valley Community College Board of Trustees

On Tuesday, Oct. 8, Elizabeth A. Burns, M.D., M.A., completed her oath of office to accept a position as a trustee on the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Board of Trustees. She replaces Julia Buck who served on the board from January 2019 to Sept. 10, 2024.

"We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Burns to the Board of Trustees," said college President L. Marshall Washington, Ph.D., "She brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and I'm certain she'll be an asset to the board as we strive to serve students and the greater Kalamazoo community."

Dr. Burns is the President Emerita of Marygrove College, Detroit, and Professor Emerita, Department of Family and Community Medicine, WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed). She served as Interim Provost at Marygrove College in the Fall of 2015 after retiring from WMed and became President in January of 2016, serving until the College closed in December of 2019. She completed working on the closure issues through June of 2024. Dr. Burns served as the Associate Dean for Faculty and Clinical Affairs and Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education/DIO at the WMU Stryker School of Medicine from 2012 to 2015, and from 2008 to 2012 she served as President and CEO of the Michigan State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.

Dr. Burns earned a medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, and completed a family practice residency at Harrisburg Hospital, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her RWJ Fellowship in Academic Medicine was at the University of Iowa, where she earned a master's degree in health science education and joined the faculty in 1979. She has led three family medicine departments as program director (University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City), professor and head of the Department of Family Medicine (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine), and professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Prior to moving to Kalamazoo, she directed the UND National Center of Excellence in Women's Health Region VIII Demonstration Project. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and the Board of Directors for the Marygrove Conservancy in Detroit. Dr. Burns and her husband, Roger Zinser, PhD, reside in Texas Township