Steph Walters, Medical Director

Steph has been Medical Director since 2010, and feels lucky to have found a position where she can aim (and mostly achieve) to model work-life balance/integration for healthcare providers. She has been providing Mac students with and teaching gender care to medical learners from the University of Minnesota since her arrival in 2010. She is passionate about teaching trainees about rapport and truly shared decision-making with patients, especially around areas such as gender care, mental health care, and sexual health. She is the founder of PAWS@Mac (campus therapy dog program), with the OG Paws dog, Kevin, since retired. She has two children: one who is a professional circus performer, and one just beginning her college experience.

She completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology at Grinnell College, where she was also a scholar-athlete in basketball and track. Steph holds a Medical Degree, a Family Medicine Residency certificate, a Master’s in Public Health (MPH), and an Adolescent Medicine post-doctoral fellowship, all from the University of Minnesota.

Steph aims to integrate her medical expertise with a commitment to social justice and a holistic view of health. Her clinical approach is grounded in the belief that health and healing are deeply connected to an individual’s personal and social ecosystem, culture, values, and intersecting identities. Committed to lifelong learning and unlearning, she strives for social justice in her work. She openly acknowledges her own intersecting identities, which include being a white, cisgender, atheist, queer woman (while recognizing the privilege associated with being in hetero-appearing relationships), and one who benefits from significant educational and class privilege.

Updated October 2025 LT