Vicken Y. Totten, MD, MS

Raised in many parts of the country in a profoundly academic family; Dr. Totten studied Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Southern California. After a year at Waseda University in Japan, she added Pre-Med and matriculated to Loyola U School of Medicine in 1975. An internship in Tennessee and two years in the US Public Health Service later, she returned to CA for a family medicine residency in Merced and grandfathered into EM in 1986. For 10 years she worked in small rural (and under-resourced) EDs all around the Central Valley while raising three children alone. After a year in Sweden as an emergency physician, she moved to Brooklyn to start the academic portion of my career. 

Raised in a gender-fluid family, Dr. Totten was co-president of USC's Gay Student Alliance at USC during 1971-2 academic year. she was interested in how language shapes thought, and studied much of the early gay, lesbian, and transgender literature. Her academic work included circadian disruption, teaching methods, and adult learning. Other areas of interest are international development of emergency medicine the specialty; mentoring the young in research methods, and global EM. She is a member of SAEM, ACEP, AAEM, IFEM, and founding member of GEMA. Currently advocating for appropriate medical treatment of transgendered etc persons in Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine, she has partnered with Horizons activist Nicolas Calvo-Rosenstone to educate physicians on the medical needs of non-gender conforming persons. 

After 40 years on the front line, Dr. Totten is retiring from the active practice of clinical medicine and will devote herself to teaching what she is asked to teach, if it is in her repertoire.