ARLINGTON, Texas — The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) will present its Distinguished Clinical Award, Private Practice, to Kimberly Persley, M.D., AGAF, a gastroenterologist on the medical staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

Kimberly Persley, M.D.

The AGA’s annual Distinguished Clinician Awards recognize practicing physicians “who, by example, combine the art of medicine with the skills demanded by the scientific body of knowledge in service to their patients.” The Distinguished Clinician Awards are presented to one physician in private practice and one in clinical academic practice.

“This is a tremendous recognition for Dr. Persley and for Texas Health Dallas,” said Aurora Estevez, M.D., MBA, FACOG, chief medical officer of Texas Health Dallas. “We couldn’t do the work we do every day without the clinical expertise and compassionate spirit of committed physicians like Dr. Persley.”

The AGA’s annual recognition awards allow association members to honor their colleagues and peers for outstanding contributions to the field of gastroenterology, according to the AGA. Gastroenterology is a medical specialty involving the diagnosis and treatment of disease and disorders affecting the stomach, intestines and associated organs. 

The AGA noted Persley’s impact on patient care in her community. She was recognized as the first private practice gastroenterologist in the Dallas-Fort Worth region to receive specialty training in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which involves chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.

“Dr. Persley is highly respected and admired by both patients and gastroenterologists in the area for her kind and excellent care,” said Rajeev Jain, M.D., chief of the Gastroenterology Division of the Department of Internal Medicine at Texas Health Dallas and gastroenterologist on the hospital’s medical staff. “She believes strongly in not just providing advanced care but also teaching her fellow clinicians.”

Along with working in her clinical practice, Persley teaches gastroenterology to internal medicine residents at Texas Health Dallas. This includes presenting lectures, organizing and running a monthly GI (gastrointestinal) journal club, and allowing residents to see her patients with her in her office and at Texas Health Dallas.  

Persley has served on the Texas Health Dallas medical staff her entire career following training. Following graduation from UT Southwestern Medical School, she completed her internship, residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at UT Southwestern in 2000. After completing an IBD fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York in 2001, she entered private practice and joined the Texas Health Dallas medical staff that year.

Along with her clinical work at Texas Health Dallas, Persley has served on the hospital’s Medical Executive Committee and Professional Practice Evaluation Committee. She is an assistant clinical professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School and a Fellow of the AGA.

The AGA will recognize Persley during Digestive Disease Week^® 2020, May 1-5, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois.