Jehni Robinson, MD, has been appointed as chair of the Department of Family Medicine of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, effective Nov. 1. Robinson has served as interim chair of the department for the past year and previously was the vice chair for clinical affairs.

“In her year as interim chair, Dr. Robinson has risen to every challenge; she has my trust and respect and I am sure she will be successful in this new venture,” Keck School Dean Laura Mosqueda, MD, said in a memo announcing the appointment.

In addition, Robinson simultaneously has been appointed as associate dean for primary care. In this role, Robinson will work with both the leadership of the Keck School and Keck Medicine of USC to serve as the point person for primary care strategy across all areas. She will provide guidance, as requested by the Keck Medicine of USC leadership, regarding clinical practice development in the community and consultation with respect to primary care practices and protocols.

Robinson has a combination of practical administrative experience from leading a large, multiservice community clinic to considerable experience in teaching and developing curriculum. She is passionate about care for underserved communities, developing teams and creating efficient patient-centered models of care that bring joy back into the practice of medicine. She is interested in developing reliable systems of care that improve quality across multispecialty practice. She also is a skilled physician who has dedicated her career to caring for children, adolescents, adults and their families in the context of their community.

Robinson previously was a professor of clinical family medicine and has been a faculty member at USC since 2014. Prior to joining the team at USC, Robinson served as chief medical officer at the Saban Community Clinic, formerly the Los Angeles Free Clinic, where she developed interdisciplinary teams and created innovative models to provide comprehensive primary care to underserved communities. She also served as interim clinical director at the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County, coordinating quality improvement activities across a consortium of community clinics. She served as faculty in the Harbor-UCLA Transforming Primary Care Fellowship where she developed curriculum, coached and developed family medicine fellows and taught the principles of Patient Centered Medical Home.

Robinson received her undergraduate degree from Stanford and completed medical school at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. She completed her internship and residency at Harbor-UCLA in the Family Medicine Residency Program and completed a fourth-year chief residency and faculty development fellowship.