Patricia “Pat” Fraser is the U.S.-born child of Afro-Caribbean immigrants, indoctrinated at an early age to work hard in school because educational achievements were seen as the door to success and the American dream. To that end, she completed degrees in both public health and medicine.
Pat spent time in academia, conducting NIH-sponsored research to study the possible genetic and environmental factors that may account for the disproportionate risk of systemic lupus erythematosus in African-American women, one of the many health disparities observed among U.S. populations. These days, Pat sees patients part-time in her rheumatology practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. During the remainder of her work week, she works as a safety physician at Sanofi Genzyme.
