Lisa Patel

Lisa Patel received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. After college, she worked in Egypt, Brazil, and India on international development projects with community-based organizations and non-profits, focusing on conservation and development efforts. She then obtained her Master’s in Environmental Sciences from the Yale School of the Environment and went on to be a Presidential Management Fellow for the Environmental Protection Agency, coordinating the US Government’s efforts on clean air and safe drinking water projects in South Asia in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Realizing the critical and inextricable links between children’s health and environmental issues, she obtained her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and completed her residency in pediatrics at UCSF. For the last several years, she has used her extensive experience working for government, community organizations, and non-profits to advocate for children’s health priorities in the US. She is previously the co-chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics Advocacy Committee, California Chapter 1 (AAP-CA1) and in her time helped launch the inaugural Advocating for Children Together conference for Northern California that is now a yearly occurrence. She co-founded the Climate and Health task force for AAP-CA1, and sits on the Executive Committee for the AAP’s national Council on Environmental Health and Climate Change. She is formerly the rotation director for the pediatric resident’s Community Pediatrics and Child Advocacy Rotation. She is currently the Executive Director for the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and maintains a clinical practice as a pediatric hospitalist caring for newborns, premature infants, and children requiring hospitalization. She also sits on the Board of Our Children’s Trust, the legal organization that represented youth in Held v. Montana.

Her work has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the New York Times, the LA Times, Bloomberg News, and multiple state and local outlets. She is interviewed regularly for her expertise on climate, health, and equity for major national media outlets like the Washington Post, US News and World Report, CNN, among others.