Richard Paat, MD

For 20 years, Dr. Richard Paat's commitment to improving the human condition has eased suffering in the Philippines, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Tanzania and Haiti.

As chairman of Medical Missions for the Filipino Association of Toledo's Special Commission on Education and Relief, Dr. Paat now brings five volunteer medical teams to those countries each year. He has led 51 medical missions and disaster relief teams that have treated more than 79,500 patients around the world.

In 2010, Dr. Paat brought a medical team to Haiti to care for earthquake victims. He's also organized emergency medical relief teams to ease suffering in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch, in Indonesia after a tsunami, and in Biloxi, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina. Clinical professor of internal medicine at The University of Toledo, Dr. Paat also serves as the volunteer medical director for International Services of Hope, a faith-based non-governmental organization that provides free surgical care for indigent children from foreign countries.

A former chief of staff at St. Luke's Hospital in Maumee, Ohio, Dr. Paat has practiced internal medicine since 1989 with his recently retired father, Dr. Antonio Paat. The recipient of a
two-year $115,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to implement a health promoter training program in Tanzania, he was also recently appointed by Gov. John Kasich
to serve on the Asian-American Pacific Islander Advisory Council for the State of Ohio where
he chairs its health committee.

In addition to his global work, Dr. Paat has provided free medical care to the uninsured and homeless of the Toledo area for the past 13 years, volunteering at a free inner-city medical clinic and running a mobile migrant worker clinic during the summers. In 2012, he established a free medical clinic in Perrysburg Heights, a poverty-level, Hispanic community that last year treated 1,000 patients throughout the Toledo region that otherwise would have only limited access to medical care.

He has served as the adviser to The University of Toledo's College of Medicine and Life Sciences' Students for Medical Missions organization since its inception in 1998. Dr. Paat is also the faculty advisor of the Community Care Clinic and the Asian and Pacific Islander Medical Student Association at UT.

His work has been recognized across the country. In 2012, he was presented the Healthcare
Hero Award. In 2010, he was named the Catholic Physician of the Year for the United States. He's been named Ohio Physician of the Year, received the Jefferson Award for Public Service and been recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International.

Dr. Paat is a 1982 microbiology graduate of The Ohio State University. He completed his
medical degree at the former Medical College of Ohio in 1986, earning honors in pulmonary medicine and hematology/oncology. He finished his residency in internal medicine in 1989 at Akron City Hospital.