Lisa Fitzpatrick is an infectious diseases physician and CDC-trained medical epidemiologist. Her career has spanned research, clinical medicine, global health, community health education and patient advocacy. She recently served as the medical director for the Infectious Diseases Center at United Medical Center in Washington, DC and is currently the medical director for Washington DC’s Medicaid program.
Dr. Fitzpatrick began her career as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she held several leadership positions. She has served as a U.S. Diplomat and an epidemiologist for the San Francisco Department of Health Office of AIDS. Her decision to leave federal government service in 2007 to work in the community was largely based on a personal desire to ensure her expertise and professional experiences could be used on the ground and would directly benefit underserved communities of color. From 2008-2012 she was an associate professor of medicine at Howard University and is a professorial lecturer for the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Dr. Fitzpatrick earned a B.A./M.D., at a six-year accelerated program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a Masters in Public Health from the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health and Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She completed a preventive medicine fellowship as an epidemiologist in the San Francisco Department of Health Office of AIDS. Dr. Fitzpatrick has authored peer-reviewed journal articles, has been featured in the Washington Post and PBS and is a guest blogger for the Huffington Post. She is a co-founder of the Community Wellness Collective in Southeast DC and certified yoga instructor.
*WRI advisory board member