Westlake Health Consulting
Patricia Gail Bray, PhD
President, Westlake Health Consulting, LLC
Dr. Patricia Gail Bray is a passionate leader invested in health and education initiatives to make systemic change in our vulnerable communities. Her work involves an intentional, strategic and collaborative approach to researching, designing, funding and implementing sustainable interventions that create measurable impacts, especially in underserved communities.
​
She is President of Westlake Health Consulting, LLC and the founding Director of the BridgeUp Center at The Menninger Clinic. BridgeUp's vision is to create a future when families, schools and communities work together to nurture the whole child.
​
She has an adjunct appointment at The University of Texas School of Public Health and is a senior fellow with the American Leadership Forum.
​
Dr. Bray lives in Houston with her husband, Dr. Stephen Linder, and has three children and three dogs.
​
She holds a PhD in Management and Policy Sciences from the the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health. Her areas of study included Health Policy, Ethics, Biostatistics and Health Economics. Additionally, she has Certificates in Mediation and Negotiation from the University of Texas School of Law and a Certificate in Negotiation from the University of California, Berkeley.
Our Values
Excellence, quality and integrity are the cornerstones of our work philosophy.
We believe collaboration, compassion and informed action are essential keys to a successful project outcome. We listen intently to our clients' needs and believe great ideas and solutions occur through dialogue with diverse audiences.
When we work with a client we immediately consider ourselves part of their team. We believe that our collective differences and experiences create the best possible solutions.
Our Environment & Health
Social Determinants of Health
Dr. Bray adopted the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) approach in her work before it was embraced in the United States' public health community. Canada, Australia and Great Britain began integrating this approach back in the early 1990s, with the guiding principle that social, economic, political and environmental factors affect our health.
​
The World Health Organization defines SDH as follows:
"The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life."
​
At Westlake, we strongly endorse the SDH scientific approach, which now includes the Social Determinants of Mental Health. We believe that place matters and that the environment plays a significant role.