Close Joins AmeriCares Board of Directors

Stamford, Conn. –Dec. 14, 2015 –AmeriCares is pleased to announce Dr. Katy Close has been elected to the AmeriCares Board of Directors. A board-certified internist specializing in medical care for the underserved, Dr. Close practices at the AmeriCares Free Clinics in Connecticut, providing primary care services to low-income patients without health insurance.

Dr. Close brings to the board nearly 20 years of experience in the medical field, including several years as a hospitalist for the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. She has also worked in charitable clinics and hospice care in the United States, as well as in hospitals overseas. Dr. Close has volunteered at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti for nearly a decade, and she was among a group of physicians recruited by AmeriCares in 2014 to respond to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Throughout her career, she has used medicines and supplies donated by AmeriCares.

“When I moved to Stamford and discovered that AmeriCares ran the free clinics here, I was delighted,” Dr. Close said. “I find AmeriCares exemplifies all that I hold dear. From taking care of people in their own backyard, to responding to the disaster that CNN doesn’t report, they just do it right.”

The AmeriCares Board of Directors oversees all aspects of the emergency response and global health organization’s programs, including its disaster response work and health programs in under-resourced countries. Last year alone, AmeriCares delivered enough medicine to fill nearly 16 million prescriptions for patients in need worldwide.

Dr. Close is a clinical associate professor of internal medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and serves on the board of Outward Bound, USA. She earned a diploma in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a master’s degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She lives in Stamford, Conn., with her husband, Christopher Buckley.