Pat Christen

Pat Christen "is responsible for oversight of all HopeLab operations. With over 20 years experience in the management of nonprofit organizations, she provides leadership in strategic planning, program development, business and fund development, and board governance. Pat is committed to finding practical and innovative solutions to complex problems. At HopeLab, she engages a multidisciplinary team focused on developing effective new interventions and systemic solutions that will improve the lives of young people with chronic illness.

"During her tenure at HopeLab, Pat has helped create the systems and relationships necessary to conduct the international 34-site randomized controlled intervention trial for the Re-Mission video game for cancer. Results of this research were published in the August 2008 edition of the medical journal Pediatrics . In addition, Pat worked closely with HopeLab Board Chair Pam Omidyar and the Board of Directors to expand disease priorities for the organization’s focused efforts; these now include cancer, obesity, sickle cell disease, major depressive disorder and autism. Pat has since led HopeLab into a new phase of innovative research and product and policy development work to enhance the Re-Mission video game and to find new interventions that will increase physical activity in young people to address the issue of obesity.

"Pat previously held the position of President and Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) for 15 years, where she worked with her counterparts from New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Boston, and New Mexico to create the federal Ryan White C.A.R.E. Act. This precedent-setting legislation now generates more than $2.0 billion annually in funding for AIDS care in the United States.

"Pat also served as president of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, establishing AIDS clinics and playing an active role in AIDS-planning efforts globally. As president of Pangaea, Pat was responsible for the construction of the Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, a state-of-the-art AIDS clinic, research, and training center which opened its doors in August of 2004. Pat has written, studied, and lectured on social and health issues both in the U.S. and abroad. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, East Africa from 1982–1985. She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and is a graduate of Stanford University, where she studied biology and political science."