Nadine Burke Harris, Founder and CEO, Center for Youth Wellness | MAKERS

Nadine Burke Harris founded Center for Youth Wellness, an organization that seeks to recognize and effectively treat toxic stress in children. Burke Harris and her organization address adverse childhood experiences as a risk factor for adult disease such as heart disease and cancer. Burke Harris also serves as an expert advisor on Hillary Clinton’s “Too Small to Fail” initiative, aiming to help parents and businesses improve the lives of children ages zero to five.

The accomplished doctor received a medical degree at UC Davis and a Master’s in public health from Harvard. In 2005, she was called to work at the California Pacific Medical Center, where she developed programs to address health disparities in the San Francisco Bay Area. She noticed a gap in pediatric services especially, and pushed for better medical coverage. In 2007, she served as the founding physician and director of the Bayview Child Health Center, a pediatric clinic that provides children and teens with regular health services, regardless of their family’s ability to pay. It was there that she saw the greatest threat to many children’s health was their exposure to trauma and adversity.