Nikhil “Sunny” Patel, M.D., is a White House Fellow

Nikhil “Sunny” Patel, M.D. (MED ’16), was named a 2021-2022 White House Fellow by the President’s Commission on White House Fellows. The White House Fellowship program embeds professionals from diverse backgrounds for a year of working as a full-time, paid fellow for White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other senior government officials. Dr. Patel is placed at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Patel is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and public health physician with interests in building equitable health systems that serve children and families. Dr. Patel has spearheaded health interventions for vulnerable populations in the U.S. and abroad, including India, Thailand and Dominican Republic. He has spent the past decade working with refugee populations and has conducted forensic psychological examinations for asylum seekers with New York University (NYU) and Physicians for Human Rights. Dr. Patel recently completed a fellowship at NYU.