Devika Bhushan
Doctor · Official · Advocate
Devika Bhushan is a pediatrician and public-health leader who served as California’s Acting Surgeon General in 2022 after previously serving as the Office of the California Surgeon General’s inaugural Chief Health Officer. She now serves on Stanford’s adjunct faculty and on the National Alliance on Mental Illness Board of Directors. [3][6]
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Career and work
Bhushan trained in neuroscience at Columbia University and in medicine at Harvard Medical School, then completed her pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins. Her work spans clinical medicine, public health and health policy, with particular interests in childhood trauma, stress and resilience, mental health and health equity. [3]
From 2019 to 2022, she served as the inaugural Chief Health Officer in the Office of the California Surgeon General. In 2022, she became California’s Acting Surgeon General. In those roles, she helped lead statewide work addressing adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, including ACEs Aware. [3]
Bhushan is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford and serves on the NAMI Board of Directors. Her professional writing and research have appeared in publications including The Lancet, Pediatrics and JAMA. [7][3][6]
What has been publicly discussed
“Most of all I want people to know that with effective treatment, a full life and our dreams are all within reach.“
— Devika Bhushan [1]
