krina.c.patel

Netroots Nation: Speaker/Trainer Profile

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Krina Patel

Associate Director, State Public Policy & Government Affairs
Biogen
Krina currently serves as Associate Director of State Public Policy and Government Affairs at Biogen, a publicly-held global biotechnology company, where she leads government affairs in Massachusetts – the location of its global headquarters – as well as other Northeast states. Krina previously served as Coalition Director for the successful Yes on 3: Freedom for All Massachusetts (FFAM) ballot campaign, which resulted in 68% of the electorate voting to protect the state's transgender public accommodations law from repeal at the November 2018 ballot. She previously served as Senior Associate of Government Affairs on the legal team at athenahealth, where she coordinated all aspects of state and federal lobbying at the growing health information technology company. Prior to that, she served as Director of Legislative and Political Affairs at MassEquality, the leading LGBTQ advocacy organization in the state, where she helped launch the Freedom Massachusetts legislative campaign to provide non-discrimination protections to the transgender community. She also served for six years as Government Affairs Associate at The Suffolk Group, a Beacon Hill lobbying firm, where she specialized in health care and provided legislative and regulatory counsel to various corporate interests, trade associations, labor unions, and non-profit organizations. Prior to that, Krina served at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, where she coordinated an Advisory Council of various health care stakeholders and produced a Legislative Report on the implementation of a health disparities section of the 2006 Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act. Krina was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 2008 after graduating from Suffolk University Law School, where she was President of the Health and Biomedical Law Society. She obtained a Masters degree in Health Policy and Management from the University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service and a Bachelors of Science degree in Biology and a minor in Communications from the University of Maine. Krina is active in the community and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association (WBA) of Massachusetts and co-chairs the organization’s Legislative Policy Committee that advocates for a variety of social justice issues. Krina is also a co-founder of Boston Young Healthcare Professionals, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization she created that provides a forum for health professionals to connect and use their career to positively impact the community. Krina is a recipient of the 2018 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly honor for Excellence in the Law – Up & Coming Lawyers. The Freedom for All Massachusetts Coalition that Krina managed was also the recipient of the Boston Bar Association’s Beacon Award for Diversity and Inclusion in the Empowerment category - a powerful advocate who works to create systemic change in the wider community, advancing civil rights, access to justice, and/or diversity and inclusion, and amplifying the voices of underrepresented groups.