Our Team: Pat Christen
Pat Christen
President and CEO
Pat Christen is responsible for all aspects of HopeLab’s 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 elegant, innovative solutions to complex problems. At HopeLab, she engages a multi-disciplinary team focused on developing effective new interventions to improve the lives of young people with chronic illness.
During her tenure at HopeLab, Pat helped create the systems and relationships necessary to conduct the international 34-site Outcomes Study trial for the Re-Mission video game for cancer with principal investigator, Dr. Pamela Kato. In addition, Pat worked closely with HopeLab Chair Pamela Omidyar and the Board of Directors to expand disease priorities for the organization’s focused efforts. Using key indicators, including morbidity and mortality data, hospitalization and clinic utilization rates, as well as surrogate markers to assess physical suffering and mental anguish among young patients, the board ultimately chose to expand HopeLab’s portfolio to include cancer, obesity, sickle cell disease, major depressive disorder and autism. HopeLab’s first initiative to address obesity called Ruckus Nation, included a worldwide competition to garner products to get kids more physically active.
Pat previously held the position of President and Executive Director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) for 15 years. During her tenure at SFAF, she worked with her counterparts from New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston to conceptualize and create the federal Ryan White C.A.R.E. Act. This precedent-setting legislation now generates more than $2.0 billion annually in AIDS-related funding in the United States.
Pat also served as president of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation where she was responsible for the start-up management of the organization, which established AIDS clinics and played an active role in national AIDS planning efforts globally. As president of Pangaea, Pat was responsible for the construction and creation of programs for 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 is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and is a graduate of Stanford University, where she studied biology and political science.