Alice Chen | |
|---|---|
| Education | Yale University (BS) Cornell University (MD) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Harvard Kennedy School |
Alice Chen is an American physician who is an assistant clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has previously been a Hauser Visiting Leader at Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and assistant clinical professor position at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Chen was a founding member and former director of the nonprofit organization Doctors for America.
Chen is from the San Francisco Bay Area. [1] She studied biology at Yale University. [2] [3] When she arrived at Yale, Chen played violin and piano but she picked up several more extracurricular activities including Russian and Chinese calligraphy during the course of her undergraduate studies. [3] She lived in Morse College. [3]
Chen was a student at Yale when she first became involved with campaigning, taking part in a protest on New Haven Green to stand against land mines. [3] She moved to the Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University for her medical degree, and graduated in 2005. [1]
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, Chen volunteered as a caseworker for the American Red Cross. [4] For the following six months she helped to lead the largest service center in Manhattan. Chen was an internal medicine resident at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. [3] Here she served as director of the UCLA residency program in Malawi. [4]
In the leadup to the 2008 United States presidential election, Chen signed an open letter from Doctors for Obama calling for reform of the United States healthcare system. [3] [5] After the election of Barack Obama, the doctors regrouped and renamed themselves Doctors for America. [6] Chen became an advocate for engaging members of the academic community in policy issues. [3]
In 2011, she became the executive of Doctors for America, and led the organisation for six years. [4] [7] Doctors for America is a nonprofit which mobilizes physicians and medical students to improve the health of people in the United States. [8] In this capacity she was at the forefront of policy changes, such as the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. [9] She called for mass shootings to be treated as a public health issue. [10]
In 2017, Chen was appointed a Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government. [4] During her position Chen studied the epidemic of loneliness, which was thought to impact almost half of American adults, as well as the health impacts of global warming. [11] [12] She studied how public health policy changed in the post-Obama administration world. [2]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen called for people who were isolating to remember to set aside time every day to check-in with their friends and families, and to use their time in lockdown to find ways to help others. [13] [14]
In an interview with CBC News, Chen said that the social isolation "can spiral into depression or anxiety, and this can have serious ramifications on a person's physical and mental health". [13] Writing with her husband and fellow physician, Vivek Murthy, in The Atlantic , Chen argued that the lingering damage of breaking up communities would be more difficult to measure than the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the economy. [15] She was appointed to Kishan Putta's [ who? ] COVID-19 advisory board, which looked to advise the council member on how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. [16]
In 2015, Chen married Vivek Murthy, Surgeon General of the United States. [17] [18] They have a son and a daughter. [2]
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