Stephen W. Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, FAAP

Stephen W. Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, is the Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and an attending neonatologist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Physician Policy Researcher at RAND Corporation, a Guest Researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Executive Director of Firefly, an innovative clinical care program to improve outcomes for pregnant women with opioid use disorder and their infants. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, Florida State University College of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Patrick completed his training in pediatrics, neonatology and health services research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Patrick’s National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded research focuses on improving outcomes for opioid-exposed infants and women with opioid use disorder and evaluating state and federal drug control policies. He previously served as Senior Science Policy Advisor to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Dr. Patrick is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Substance Use and Prevention and has been a voting member on several US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Boards focused on opioid use in children. He has testified about the impact of the opioid crisis on pregnant women and infants before committees in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Dr. Patrick’s awards include the American Medical Association Foundation Excellence in Medicine Leadership Award, the Academic Pediatric Association Fellow Research Award, Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Early Career Physician of the Year, the Nemours Child Health Services Research Award and the Society for Pediatric Research Young Investigator Award. His research has been published in leading scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics and Health Affairs.