Sheetal Khedkar Rao

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT SHEETAL KHEDKAR RAO

Dr. Sheetal Khedkar Rao is a board-certified, practicing primary care physician and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Academic Internal Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). She is a 2022 Harvard Climate and Health Organizing Fellow, a 2023 University of Colorado Climate and Health Policy Fellow, a 2024 UIC Teaching Sustainability Fellow and a 2025 OpEd Public Voices Fellow. Dr. Rao develops and teaches planetary health curriculum in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Dept at UIC\'s School of Public Health and College of Medicine (COM) where she also serves as faculty sponsor for the Ecology and Sustainability in Medicine Student Group. Dr. Rao is a co-investigator in UIC\'s NIH Center for Extreme Conditions and Health Excellence (CECHE) and collaborates on research related to extreme heat vulnerability and nature-based solutions.Outside of the clinic and classroom, Dr. Rao works with local communities to increase tree canopy around the Chicago region through her non-profit organization Nordson Green Earth—a member of the National Academy of Medicine\'s Climate Communities Network. Dr. Rao is also an active board member of the Illinois Clinicians for Climate Action and works on healthcare sustainability as a technical expert for the American Hospital Association\'s Community Health and Environment initiative.Dr. Rao obtained a Bachelor\'s in Chemical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and worked in pharmaceutical research for two years prior to completing a Masters in physiology and medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She completed internal medicine residency at UIC. Dr. Rao is a 2022 recipient of the American Public Health Association Climate Leadership Award.