Lynn Silver, MD | MPH | FAAP

Director | Principal Investigator

Dr. Lynn Silver, pediatrician, researcher and public health advocate, is Senior Advisor at the Public Health Institute and Clinical Professor at University of California San Francisco. She focuses on policies to prevent noncommunicable disease, its risk factors and inequitable impact. Silver was Assistant Health Commissioner of New York City, leading innovative policy work such as the nation’s first trans-fat ban, calorie labeling law and the National Salt Reduction Initiative and supported innovative tobacco control policies and programs. She previously worked on issues related to regulation of pharmaceuticals and of health insurance. Silver served as Health Officer for Sonoma County, California and has advanced and evaluated many policies to create a healthier food supply. She began working on cannabis policy during passage of California’s Proposition 64 in 2016, driven by recognition that many hard-earned lessons from regulation of other legal but harmful products were not being incorporated into cannabis regulation. Experience as a public health official, and consumer advocate guides the project’s understanding that a more public health and equity-oriented approach is needed to protect our youth as this new legal industry expands, and lead to the multifaceted research, technical assistance and policy advocacy approach of Getting it Right from the Start. She received her MD and MPH degrees and pediatric training from the Johns Hopkins University, was previously visiting scholar at the Karolinska Institute, and has published widely on these issues.