Dr. Bhushan serves as Chief Medical Officer at Daybreak Health, which brings personalized mental health support directly to youth, as adjunct faculty at Stanford, and as a senior advisor to entities that advance health, innovation, and equity. She serves on the national Board of Directors for NAMI, the nation’s leading mental health advocacy organization.

Previously, as California’s Acting Surgeon General (2022) and the office’s inaugural Chief Health Officer (2019-2022), Dr. Bhushan was a key public health advisor to California’s Governor, and led policy and practice innovation through co-developing the $500 million ACEs Aware initiative, focused on healing from childhood trauma.

Dr. Bhushan’s policy, research, and clinical expertise spans trauma-informed systems, stress and resilience, anti-fragile parenting, mental health, and gender and health equity. She has been featured in The Lancet, Pediatrics, JAMA, NBC, National Public Radio (NPR), Slate, and The Los Angeles Times. She trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Bhushan is an award-winning mental health activist, known for publicly sharing her journey with bipolar disorder. She appears in the documentary BrainStorm (2025). Having spent her early years between India, the Philippines, and the US, Dr. Bhushan is an immigrant and a first-generation American. She lives in the Bay Area with her long-time partner and child.