Joanna Ratigan

Joanna Ratigan assists Lewis-Burke clients by monitoring environmental and public health legislative developments and funding opportunities from federal agencies, most notably, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Joanna’s passion for public health and environmental justice, and her experience in health policy, research, and advocacy, allows her to provide thorough insight to clients that integrates multiple issues.

Issue Expertise: Health, agriculture, environment, nutrition, climate, and biomedical research.

Additional Experience: Joanna’s first exposure to policy work came when she served as a Legislative Intern for Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York. She went on to earn additional experience from internships in health science research and global health advocacy in New York and Washington, DC. Joanna most recently gained expertise in school nutrition policy as an intern at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. While studying abroad in Geneva, Switzerland, she combined her passions for health and environment, while discovering a new interest in agriculture, by completing an independent research project on the impacts of climate change on the nutritional value of rice crops.

Vital Statistics: Joanna is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, and was born in South Africa. She spent the longest amount of time in New Rochelle, New York – which she considers home – but also lived in Maputo, Mozambique twice before finishing high school in Ottawa, Ontario. She graduated summa cum laude from the George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs, a concentration in International Development, and a minor in Public Health. Joanna is an avid fan of soccer (women’s) and basketball (women’s and men’s), and spends her free time supporting the Portland Thorns, New York Liberty, Portland Trail Blazers, and Toronto Raptors in that order.