Ravi Chandra, M.D.

Ravi Chandra is a psychiatrist, writer, and compassion educator in San Francisco and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a recipient of the 2025 Kun-Po Soo Award for Achievement in Asian American Psychiatry. He received an Sc.B. with Honors from Brown University, an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, and completed a residency in general adult psychiatry from the University of California, San Francisco. He writes for Psychology Today and East Wind eZine and wrote essays on film for the Center for Asian American Media for 14 years. He has written nearly 500 essays for these publications from 2006 to 2024, and he has a monthly newsletter and Substack. He regularly teaches for the American Psychiatric Association and other venues. He worked in community mental health and continues to serve a diverse group of patients, as well as volunteering for a variety of causes, including facilitating Healing Circles for Change, largely with the Japanese American social justice organization, Tsuru for Solidarity. His debut nonfiction book, Facebuddha: Transcendence in the Age of Social Networks, won a 2017 Nautilus Silver Award. His debut documentary feature, The Bandaged Place: From AIDS to COVID and Racial Justice, was awarded Best Film at the 2021 Cannes Independent Film Festival. His other short-form films that have been presented at half a dozen film festivals.

Dr. Chandra is a 1.8-generation immigrant to the United States, having immigrated from India with his mother at less than two years of age. He grew up in Tuskegee, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; Flint, Michigan; and the suburbs of Detroit. Through his private practice and cultural work, he aims to support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.