Shilpa Patel, PhD, is the director of population health and health equity at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS). In this role, she leads CHCS projects that support states and health care systems to advance community health and health equity for people served by Medicaid. This work includes developing value-based payment models designed to reduce and eliminate health disparities as well as efforts to promote meaningful consumer and community engagement to drive the design of more effective care models.

Prior to joining CHCS, Dr. Patel served as a program manager in the Section for Health Equity at the Department of Population Health of NYU Langone Health where she helped to develop culturally relevant community-clinical linkage models to reduce health disparities among communities of color. As part of this work, she gained experience creating cross-sector collaborations to address health disparities, as well as implementing and evaluating evidence-based policies and programs in community settings.

Dr. Patel has also held positions at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she worked on projects that sought to increase access and utilization of cancer-related services for communities of color. She also completed the ASPH/CDC/PRC Minority Health Fellowship Program at the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.

Dr. Patel received her doctorate in public health from New York University. She holds a master’s degree in public health from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University with a certificate in Comparative Effectiveness Outcomes Research, and a bachelor’s degree in public health and psychology from Rutgers University.