Devika Bhushan

Devika Bhushan, MD,is a pediatrician, public health leader, author, and keynote speaker on a mission to drive health innovation, resilience, and equity. Her expertise spans trauma-informed systems, stress and resilience, mental health, and gender and health equity — with insights featured in The Lancet, Pediatrics, JAMA, NBC, NPR, Slate, Rolling Stone, and The Los Angeles Times.

Dr. Bhushan serves on Stanford’s adjunct faculty, as Chief Medical Officer at Daybreak Health, which brings personalized mental health support directly to youth and families, and as a senior strategic advisor to entities that aim to advance health, innovation, and equity, ranging from non-profits to a venture capital firm. She serves on the national Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s leading mental health advocacy organization, and the California Partners Project, co-founded by California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom to focus on child well-being and gender equity.

Previously, as California’s Acting Surgeon General (2022) and its inaugural Chief Health Officer (2019-2022), Dr. Bhushan was a key public health spokesperson and advisor to California’s Governor. In these roles, she led policy and practice innovation at a statewide level by co-leading the launch and implementation of the $500 million ACEs Aware initiative, focused on healing from childhood trauma. She was awarded Health Equity Champion by the California Behavioral Health Association (2025).

Dr. Bhushan is also an award-winning mental health spokesperson, known for publicly sharing her journey with bipolar disorder to destigmatize mental illness and spread hope. She leads a vibrant newsletter community and YouTube channel/podcast to share evidence-based insights for well-being, and stars in the documentary BrainStorm (2025).

Dr. Bhushan trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins. She is a parent, an immigrant, and a first-generation Indian American.