Sonny S. Patel

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Biography

Sonny S. Patel, MPH, MPhil, is an award-winning researcher and a former National Institutes of Health Fogarty Global Health Scholar. He is a Presidential Fellow in Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative at Georgia State University and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He has received his Bachelors from University of California, Berkeley, his Masters from University of Southern California (Public Health and Global Health Leadership) and King’s College London (Psychological Medicine). He has developed protocols, programs, and training to build capacity and knowledge in communities worldwide from subject matters in Public Health, Community Health, and Mental Health to specialized topics in Emergency Management, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Community Resilience and Engagement.

Patel was named a top 40 under 40 Public Health Catalyst by the Boston Congress of Public Health, and he was picked by LinkedIn as 1 of 120 experts for the 2022 U.S. program on Technology and Innovation. He was also bestowed with the Emerald Publishing Literati Award in 2021 for Outstanding Research Paper by the Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management. He was recognized by USAID in India as one of the top DevDisruptors in Mental Health (2020) and by NATO peers in Ukraine as a rising star in Environmental Health and Security in Conflict Zones (2018).

He is the author of the book, Community Resilience When Disaster Strikes: Security and Community Health in UK Flood Zones, published by Springer Nature, and contributed to the Emerald Publishing book, COVID-19, Frontline Responders and Mental Health: A Playbook for Delivering Resilient Public Health Systems Post-Pandemic, and the Routledge published textbook, Service-Learning for Disaster Resilience: Partnerships for Social Good. Patel serves as a Public Health Executive on advisory committees and board of directors of organizations creating positive social and community impacts, such as The Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center.

Education and Training

• BA,
  University of California
• MPH,
  University of Southern California
• MPhil,
  King's College London

Awards and Honors

• DevDistruptor in Public Health & Mental Health, 2020
  USAID India
• Rising Star in Environmental Health and Security in Conflict Zones, 2018
  North Atlantic Treaty Organization Ukraine
• NIH Fogarty Global Health Scholar, 2017 - 2019
  National Institutes of Health

Publications

• Community Resilience When Disaster Strikes: Security and Community Health in UK Flood Zones

  Patel, Sonny S. Community Resilience When Disaster Strikes: Security and Community Health in UK Flood Zones 2025

• Challenges and opportunities experienced by performing artists during COVID-19 lockdown: Scoping review

  Brooks, S. K., & Patel, S. S. . Social Sciences & Humanities Open 2025

• Informality, violence, and disaster risks: Coproducing inclusive early warning and response systems in urban informal settlements in Honduras

  Peters, L.E., Clark-Ginsberg, A., McCaul, B., Cáceres, G., Nuñez, A.L., Balagna, J., López, A., Patel, S.S., Patel, R.B. and Van Den Hoek, J. Frontiers in Climate 2025

• Corruption and disasters in the built environment: a literature review.

  Sanderson D, Patel SS, Loosemore M, Sharma A, Gleason K, Patel R. Disasters 2022

  PMID: 34254340

• Evaluation of change in emergency care knowledge and skills among front-line healthcare providers in Ukraine with the Basic Emergency Care course: a pretest/post-test study.

  Kivlehan SM, Allen A, Viun O, Makarov DA, Schnorr D, Patel S, Ryzhenko SA, Pham P, Erickson TB. BMJ Open 2022 06 14

  PMID: 35701058