Austin doctor tapped to be chief medical officer for Homeland Security

Austin doctor to become chief medical officer of United States DHS

President Biden has tapped a local doctor to become a chief medical officer of the United States Department of Homeland Security.

AUSTIN, Texas - President Joe Biden has tapped an Austin doctor to become chief medical officer of the Department of Homeland Security.

Dr. Pritesh Gandhi will serve as the principal adviser to the DHS secretary, the FEMA administrator, and DHS senior leadership on medical and public health issues related to natural disasters, border health, pandemic response, acts of terrorism, and other manmade disasters.

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In addition to his work with People's Community Clinic in Austin, Dr. Gandhi recently served as an associate faculty member at UT Austin's Dell Medical School.

According to his Dell Medical School biography, Dr. Gandhi is an internist, pediatrician, and community advocate who focuses on community-based, poverty-reduction initiatives and social determinants of health. He also holds degrees in international relations and economics from Tufts University and he completed his M.D. and MPH at Tufts School of Medicine.

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Austin healthcare clinic treating uninsured, underinsured patients reportedly experiencing PPE shortage

Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, Associate Chief Medical Officer at the People’s Community Clinic, says the clinic is experiencing the shortage while testing and treating COVID-19 patients.

He is also a 2018 Presidential Leadership scholar — a joint initiative from the presidential centers of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson that brings together diverse, high-performing professionals from across the nonprofit, military, public and private sectors to learn leadership lessons first-hand from the four presidencies and Presidents Bush and Clinton, says the biography.