Welcome

Dr. J. Craig Collins is the Regional Assistant Medical Director for Graduate Medical Education (GME) at Kaiser Permanente, Southern California. As the regional director of KP residency and fellowship programs, he serves as KP’s Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for Southern California. He supports the distinguished program directors and managers who lead 35 KP-sponsored, ACGME-accredited programs, plus scores of affiliated programs, in numerous medical and surgical specialties. KP programs reside in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside, and Woodland Hills, with more than 400 residents and fellows. Dr. Collins also oversees Undergraduate Medical Education for medical students who rotate with KP from eight affiliated schools of medicine and more than 100 other medical schools.

Dr. Collins received his BA in Biology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He completed residency training in surgery at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where he served from 1993-1997 as an assistant professor. Currently, he holds the rank of associate professor of clinical science at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine and associate clinical professor of surgery at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

An avid lifelong learner, Dr. Collins earned a Master of Business Administration degree at the UCLA Anderson School of Management in 2006. He completed the two-year UCSF-California Health Care Foundation Leadership Program in 2011.

Dr. Collins is certified by the American Board of Surgery. He specializes in minimally invasive surgery of the abdomen. He continues to be an active clinical surgeon and senior faculty member. He is fluent in Spanish and certified as a bilingual caregiver. He has served as an examination consultant to the American Board of Surgery. He is a Fellow and past Governor of the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He is past president of the ACS’ Southern California Chapter.

Dr. Collins and his wife Alicia are parents to three young adults. Dr. Collins plays bass guitar with an all-surgeon band, The Blues Cutters.