Dr. Richard Pan
Pediatrician, former member of the California State Senate
Bio:
Dr. Richard Pan is a pediatrician and former UC Davis professor who served in the California State Senate from 2014 to 2022, representing the 6th Senate district, which encompassed parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties. Prior to being elected to the State Senate, he was a member of the California State Assembly representing the 5th Assembly District, and after the 2010 redistricting, the 9th Assembly District. He served as Chair of the Assembly and Senate Committees on Health. Dr .Pan currently serves on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs.
Following a measles outbreak that began in California and infected 131 people, Dr. Pan and Senator Ben Allen introduced California Senate Bill 277 in 2015, which eliminated non-medical exemptions to vaccine requirements for California school children. In 2019, he authored SB276 to provide public health oversight over medical exemptions to vaccination. TIME magazine called Dr. Pan a “hero” of vaccine history. Dr. Pan is a champion for public health authoring legislation to expand newborn screening, fund gun violence research, increase health care coverage and affordability, reduce sexually transmitted infection and increase state funding for public health. In 2021 he authored a law (SB 742) that makes illegal to “harass, intimidate, injure or obstruct” people who are on their way to get a vaccination. The law was inspired by an incident in January 2021 when protesters targeted and briefly shut down a mass vaccination site in Los Angeles.
Dr. Pan has a Medical Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of Public Health from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in biophysics from Johns Hopkins University.