Susmita Pati, MD MPH

Professor of Pediatrics, Chief, Division of Primary Care Pediatrics, Chief Medical Program Advisor, the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science®; Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY

Susmita Pati, MD MPH, serves as the Alda Center’s Chief Medical Program Advisor to provide consultation about development and evaluation of the Center’s medical workshops. Dr. Pati is a nationally recognized physician-scientist with expertise in population health analytics, innovation, and system transformation. Her leadership and management experience includes roles and responsibilities to develop and advance the clinical, educational and research missions at the departmental, school, university, and health-system levels in large academic medical centers. She is currently a tenured professor of pediatrics, the Division Chief of Primary Care Pediatrics, and Chair of the Professionalism Committee at Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. She officially joined the Alda Center in 2018 because her more than 20 years of experience has strengthened her belief that communication is fundamental to success in building strong health care delivery teams that, in turn, lead to joy and fulfillment at work.

Formerly, Dr. Pati was faculty at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where she co-founded PolicyLab, an interdisciplinary child health services research center focused on translating evidence into action, and led a Dean's Task Force commissioned to provide recommendations for improving the work environment for new faculty, with a particular focus on women.

Dr. Pati earned an AB cum laude in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, a MD from the University of Connecticut, and a MPH in Epidemiology from Columbia University. She completed her pediatric residency, chief residency, and post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia University. She has served on the Board of Directors of Public Citizens for Children and Youth in Philadelphia and the Board of Trustees the Medical Center Nursery School in northern Manhattan. Her team's work on health disparities has been published in top-tier scientific journals and she is the principal architect for the national award-winning Keeping Families Healthy program, whereby community health workers function as a direct extension of the pediatrician's office to help families follow clinical care recommendations.