Kristin Drouin is a clinical social worker in Cardiology at Children's National Hospital, where she works primarily with the cardiac critical care team. She is also the psychosocial clinician embedded with the Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD) program.

Kristin is a licensed clinical social worker in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. She has advanced certification in palliative and hospice social work (APHSW-C) and is also recognized as a Fellow in Thanatology (FT) through the Association for Death Education and Counseling. Kristin has a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University, an MSW from the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and completed a post-grad fellowship through Harvard Medical School's Center for Palliative Care.        

Over the course of her career (thus far!), Kristin has worked with hundreds of children, adolescents, adults and families navigating chronic and life-limiting illness, as well as bereavement. Kristin has served as the social worker for hospital-based pediatric palliative care and pediatric oncology programs; as the director of a hospital-wide bereavement program, and as a grief and trauma therapist with a community-based non-profit. She has experience supporting children, adults and families in their grief journeys after all causes of death, including illness, accident, suicide and homicide. 

Kristin has earned recognition for her commitment to patient and family-centered care by the health systems within which she has served. She has presented nationally at conferences focused on palliative care social work and hospice medicine, and has led didactic sessions for medical residents and fellows, psychologists, and social workers. Kristin is the lead author of a textbook chapter focused on the psychosocial assessment of and considerations for working with individuals with life-limiting blood disorders, as well as co-author of a chapter in Hospice Foundation of America’s Living with Grief book series. Her work has been published in several academic journals, including American Academy of Pediatrics, Journal of Palliative Medicine, Journal of Social Work in End-of-Life and Palliative Care, and Omega-Journal of Death and Dying.

Outside of the hospital, Kristin is a part-time private practice therapist at The National Center for Health Psychology, where she works with adolescent and adult clients navigating life-limiting illness, end-of-life care and bereavement. As an adjunct professor at Syracuse University, Kristin teaches a course on death, dying and grief for advanced standing MSW students.