Dr. Patel completed her medical degree at the University of North Carolina, residency at Stanford, and a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program at University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Patel conducts research in the area of chronic disease prevention, with an emphasis on encouraging healthy beverage consumption among children and adolescents in school and child care settings. Dr. Patel has received funding for her research from foundations and the National Institutes of Health, and has published numerous peer­reviewed manuscripts in this area. In 2012, Dr. Patel received the American Academy of Pediatrics Outstanding Achievement Award for her work to translate research into policy