Fellow Highlights

1999 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow Nadine Burke-Harris Appointed As First-Ever California Surgeon General

January 22, 2019

On Monday, January 21, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed 1999 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow Nadine Burke-Harris as the first-ever surgeon general of the state of California. She will be sworn in on February 11. Nadine is a pediatrician, the founder and CEO of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco and a national leader on toxic stress and its impact on children.

Nadine was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent the first four years of her life in Jamaica. She then settled with her family in Palo Alto, California. Nadine earned her BA in integrative biology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1996. She graduated from University of California at Davis Medical School in 2001. She completed an MPH degree at Harvard University in May 2002.

“As Surgeon General, Dr. Burke Harris will urge policymakers at every level of government and leaders across the state to consider the social determinants of health, especially for children,” the governor’s press release stated. “Her work will focus on combating the root causes of serious health conditions — like adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress — and using the platform of Surgeon General to reach young families across the state.”

Photograph of four people posing and smiling for the camera. On the left a man in his 50s with light skin tone and grey short hair. Next a woman in her 40s with medium-dark skin tone and straight black hair. Next a woman in her 80s with light skin tone and chin length blonde hair. On the right a man in his 40s with medium skin tone and dark grey hair, he is wearing a military uniform. — *From left to right: Jeffrey Soros, Nadine Burke-Harris (1999 Fellow), Daisy Soros and Vivek Murthy (1998 Fellow).*

Nadine has been an active member of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships community. In 2015, she interviewed then Surgeon General Vivek Murthy at the annual program’s Fall Conference. In 2018, she spoke about her book The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity at the program’s 20 Year Reunion in Coloardo Springs, Colorado. ∎