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

Stephen W. Patrick, MD, MPH, MS, is the William R. Long Director of Child Health Policy at the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy, Executive Director of Firefly, an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Health Policy, and an attending neonatologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also an Adjunct Physician Policy Researcher at RAND Corporation. Dr. Patrick 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 Institutes of Health-funded research focuses on improving outcomes for pregnant people with opioid use disorder and their infants and evaluating state and federal drug policies. He previously served as Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy where he led an interagency policy process that resulted in the Administration’s action plan to improve outcomes for pregnant people with substance use disorder and their infants. He also previously served as a Guest Researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 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 people 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 Nemours Child Health Services Research Award, the Society for Pediatric Research Young Investigator Award and the Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research. He has published more than 120 peer review articles including in leading scientific journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Pediatrics and Health Affairs.