Dr. Elizabeth Baca is passionate about building healthy, resilient communities. She is currently serving as the senior health advisor in the California Governor's Office of Planning and Research. She is working across sectors to foster collaboration, elevate the connection between health and the built environment, and leading the effort to incorporate health considerations into the planning process. She is also engaged with several data initiatives to improve access to data to foster innovation in planning healthy, resilient communities. She also serves on the Building Health Initiative for the USGBC of Northern California, a multi-sector initiative to bring together industry partners to recognize that health and wellness are vital components of sustainability and green building. Previously, she served on the General Pediatric Faculty at Stanford Medical School and directed the Community Pediatric and Child Advocacy Rotation. In addition to teaching medical students and residents about the social, economic, and environmental factors that affect health,

Dr. Baca was the lead faculty mentor on several projects to increase access to healthy foods, reduce environmental triggers of asthma, increase physical activity opportunities, and improve the built environment. Dr. Baca studied health policy at Universidad Simon Bolivar in Venezuela. She completed her Masters in Public Administration at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and her Doctorate of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Baca completed her pediatric residency in the Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) program at University of California, San Francisco.