Sheetal Khedkar Rao, MD is a practicing, board-certified internal medicine physician whose work explores the impact of climate change on health. As co-founder and chief Health Officer of the Illinois non-profit Nordson Green Earth Foundation (NGEF), Dr. Rao works to improve tree canopy in the Chicago region through community engagement. Dr. Rao cares for patients and trains future physicians at the University of Illinois (UIC) in the West Side of Chicago. She also teaches a graduate-level course on the health impacts of climate change at the UIC School of Public Health.
Dr. Rao has completed fellowships in community organizing and health and climate science policy through the Harvard-affiliated Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy (CHEEA) and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, respectively. She obtained her M.D. and a Masters in Physiology at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Prior to attending medical school, she studied chemical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and worked on drug formulation for Pfizer.