Richard Pan
Richard Juien-Dah Pan (born October 28, 1965) is an American Democratic politician and physician who is currently serving in the California State Senate representing the 6th Senate district, which encompasses parts of Sacramento and Yolo counties. He is also a practicing pediatrician. Pan is Chair of the California Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. Prior to being elected to the State Senate in 2014, he was a member of the California State Assembly representing the 5th Assembly District, and after the 2010 redistricting, the 9th Assembly District. Early life and education. Pan was born in Yonkers, New  York and raised in Pittsburgh to immigrant parents from Taiwan. Pan received a B.A. in Biophysics at The Johns Hopkins University, an M.D. at the University of Pittsburgh entering into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and a M.P.H. at Harvard University. He completed his pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital also serving as Chief Resident in Pediatrics and was a Primary Care Research Fellow and Anne Dyson Pediatric Advocacy Fellow at Children's Hospital Boston. He also was a California HealthCare Foundation Health Care Leadership Fellow. Medical career. Prior to being elected to the state assembly, he was  a pediatrician and professor at the UC Davis Children's Hospital, where he led the pediatric residency program. In 2005, CPT received the Community Campus Partnerships for Health Award and in 2008, Pan received the Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service Learning for his work on CHPT. Pan also taught community development at UC Davis. He is a board member of the United Way California Capitol Region, a past board member of BloodSource, a regional blood bank, and served for six years as a Commissioner on the Sacramento First 5 Commission, which supports programs for children 0–5 years . He was a founding board member and chair of Healthy Kids Healthy Future, a regional administrative agency that obtained health care coverage for over 65,000 children in Colusa, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yuba counties. He also was a founding member of the Sacramento Health Improvement Project, a coalition of physicians, hospitals, clinics, and community activists working to strengthen the health care safety-net in Sacramento County. Educational career. Pan is a teaching faculty member at UC Davis, and has published numerous papers on medical education and physician workforce. He served on the American Medical Association Council on Medical Education  and on the board of the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education, which oversees physician residency education in the United States. He also was an Ambulatory Pediatric Association National Pediatric Faculty Development Scholar. Legislative career. Following a measles outbreak beginning in Californiainfecting 136 people in California, Pan and Senator Ben Allen introduced California Senate Bill 277 in 2015, which eliminated philosophical and religious beliefs exemptions to vaccine requirements for California school children. The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown. Pan authored laws to expand newborn screening for severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (AB395 in 2011), adrenoleukodystrophy  (AB1559 in 2014) and all conditions recommended by the federal DHHS Recommended Universal Screening Panel (SB1095 in 2016). Pan authored legislation to extend the California Children's Services Program managed care carve-out (AB301 in 2011) and to establish the Medi-Cal Children's Health Advisory Board to guide Medi-Cal policy affecting children (AB357 in 2014). 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 when protesters targeted and briefly shut down  a mass vaccination site in Los Angeles. In the California State Senate, Pan is Chair of the Committee on Health and the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee #3 on Health and Human Services, the Select Committee on the 2020 United States Census, and the Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs. He also serves on the Senate Committees on Budget and Fiscal Review; Business, Professions, and Economic Development; Education; Labor, Public Employment and Retirement and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee; Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and Joint Committee on the Arts. Pan previously served as Chair of  the Senate Committees on Public Employment and Retirement and Labor and Industrial Relations and on the Committee on Agriculture. As Chair of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, Pan led the 2021 Caucus effort to secure the API Equity Budget of $156.5 million to address systemic discrimination and rising hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Prior to serving in the state senate, he was a member of the California State Assembly. Pan was Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health, and was a member of the Committees on Agriculture, Appropriations, and Revenue and Taxation. Previously , Pan was Vice-Chair of the Assembly Veterans' Affairs Committee, and served on the Committees on Aging and Long-Term Care, and Accountability and Administrative Review. He was also the Chair of the Select Committee on Healthcare Workforce and Access to Care. Awards. Pan has received many awards for his community and professional leadership including the UC Davis Chancellor’s Award for Diversity and Community, the Medical Board of California Physician Humanitarian Award, the American Academy of Pediatrics Abraham Jacobi Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in pediatrics, the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society Medical Honor Award, the California School Nurses  Organization Lydia Smiley Award, the United Way California Capitol Region Clarence La Rue Outstanding Volunteer Award, and the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Sacramento Hearts and Hands Award. Pan has also received numerous state and national awards for his legislative work including the National Consumers League Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award, the American Medical Association Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service., and the American Academy of Pediatrics Child Health Advocate Award.