Sneha Dave

Sneha founded the Health Advocacy Summit and Crohn’s and Colitis Young Adults Network, with major funding from the Helmsley Charitable Trust and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, to create more support systems for young adults and adolescents with chronic and rare illnesses across the U.S. and internationally. She is proud of the organizations’ funding source transparency and independence from receiving money from the pharmaceutical industry. She was chosen as one of the most influential teens globally in 2018 by the We Are Family Foundation.

Sneha completed a research fellowship in health policy at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she is continuing research as an undergraduate in health care related to young adults. She also interned at the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Headquarters and Pfizer Global Headquarters in health economics and outcomes research for Inflammation and Immunology. Sneha spoke on Capitol Hill, featured nationally on C-SPAN, is a past contributor for U.S. News and World Report, and has put in considerable time and effort in D.C. advocating for better access to health care for people with chronic illnesses. She also created and chairs the first disability caucus in Indiana, and has served on the Democratic National Committee Disability Policy Subcommittee and Women’s March Disability Caucus. Sneha was awarded two academic fellowships with the Association of Health Care Journalists. She was previously a national policy fellow and now serves as the youngest director on the board for RespectAbility, a nonprofit fighting stigma and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities. Sneha has spoken at Stanford Medicine X, the Harvard Youth and Public Health Summit, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and other major avenues.

In her free time, she enjoys climbing, hiking, and reading all things related to health economics. Most of all, she is incredibly grateful for all the people she gets to work with and those that have overcome barriers in their lives to continue thriving with a chronic illness. She has proudly lived in Indiana most of her life, is an advocate for women supporting women, is passionate about advancing health care in rural communities, and is an ardent supporter of more transparency in the patient advocacy space.