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Priya Bhat-Patel is a Council Member in the City of Carlsbad and the first Indian American woman to be elected to City Council in San Diego County. She previously served as the Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Carlsbad in 2019. Bhat-Patel is a Democrat and is currently running for the California State Senate representing the 36th Senate District in the 2022 elections. In addition to serving on City Council, Bhat-Patel is a Policy Analyst and Manager for the California Family Justice Center Network (Alliance for HOPE International). Before serving as Council Member, Bhat-Patel worked in academic, research, and corporate settings related to local and global public health.

Biography
Bhat-Patel was born in 1988 and has lived in Carlsbad, CA for the past 25 years. She holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Physiology and Neuroscience from University of California, San Diego and a Masters in Public Health from University of Southern California, where she graduated with Delta Omega honors. She also completed her doctorate from Loma Linda University, where she graduated at the top of her class, earning the Dean’s Award and the Ruth White Scholarship.

Bhat-Patel’s early professional career focused on public health programs at the county and state level. For example, she ensured that individuals were able to adequately access behavioral health services in San Diego County. Currently, she is a Policy Analyst and Manager for the California Family Justice Center Network, one of the leading domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and intervention organizations in the United States. She wrote an influential op-ed on the increase in domestic violence during the stay-at-home orders due to novel coronavirus in April 2020.

It was in part due to her experiences with county and state governments that inspired her to run for political office.