A pediatrician, public health practitioner, and health administrator, Dr. Elisa Nicholas has devoted her career to caring and advocating for underserved children and families. As Chief Executive Officer of The Children’s Clinic, Serving Children and Their Families (TCC), she has led the growth from one site to the addition of 7 satellite clinics. Through Dr. Nicholas’ vision, TCC has become a dynamic system of not-for-profit community health centers in Long Beach that provide over 70,000 visits per year to a diverse and growing population, and is dedicated to caring and advocating for underserved children and their families.

With her expertise in community pediatrics and a mother of a son with special health care needs, Dr. Nicholas continues to focus on addressing disparities by designing and/or implementing critical programs which include asthma coalitions, school-based health programs, immunization awareness campaigns, and healthy lifestyle programs such as the Long Beach Alliance for Food and Fitness. She is a Project Co-Chair of the YMCA Activate America: Pioneering Healthy Communities. In addition to her role as CEO of TCC, Dr. Nicholas serves as Project Director for the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA), the American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH (Community Access to Child Health) District Co-Facilitator, a member of the Community Advisory Board for the National Children’s Study of Los Angeles-Ventura Study Center, and a board member of CCALAC (). An Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UC Irvine, she is also an active staff member and former Chief of Staff at Miller Children’s Hospital where she worked closely with practicing pediatricians. She formerly served on the AAP Executive Committee for the Section on Community Pediatrics, Task Force on Youth and Education for strategic planning for the City of Long Beach, LA Care Health Plan Children’s Health Consultant Advisory Committee and Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Committee, to name a few. She has been the recipient of numerous community awards such as State Senator Alan Lowenthal’s California Woman of the Year Award.

Dr. Nicholas has had a long term commitment to children’s health on a global level. She has worked in Haiti, at the Hospital Albert Schweitzer and Hopital de L’universite D’etat D’Haiti. She implemented a Child Survival grant in Uganda. She more recently visited Cuba studying health and the built environment.

Dr. Nicholas is a graduate of the UCLA School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency training at the Yale University School of Medicine/New Haven Hospital and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the UCLA School of Medicine. She completed her Masters of Science in Public Health and a preventive medicine residency at UCLA.