Carole Pratt, D.D.S.

Carole Pratt was raised on a family farm in southwest Virginia where the cash crop was Burley tobacco supplemented by beef
cattle production. Her summers were spent working in the tobacco field and she attributes her college education to the desire to
spend summers in the classroom instead. She attended Virginia Tech and the Medical College of Virginia School of Dentistry,
earning her DDS degree as the only woman in a dental school class of 110, one of two women in the entire school. She insists
that she didn't attend dental school to find a husband, but with odds like that she couldn't help it. Along with her husband, she
practiced general dentistry in Central Appalachia for 32 years and served in leadership roles in a number of professional, civic,
and economic development organizations at the regional, state, and national levels.
Pratt was a National Rural Health Association Fellow during passage of the Affordable Care Act and was one of five Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows in 2011-2012. She worked as a member of the health staff in the personal
office of Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV, where her work focused largely on the already raging opioid addiction crisis in West
Virginia where the overdose death rate is still among the worst in the nation.
She served as Senior Advisor and Confidential Assistant for Policy in Virginia Governor Northam's administration from 2018-
2022. Her responsibilities included addiction education, prevention, and treatment; veterans' health; healthcare workforce; oral
health; health and housing; rural health; telehealth and telemedicine; and legislative work. She was in Virginia Governor
McAuliffe's administration from 2014 through 2018 as Senior Advisor and Confidential Assistant to Virginia's Secretary of Health
and Human Resources and the Commissioner of Health, working primarily on challenges of the addiction and overdose crisis in
the Commonwealth.
Pratt is passionate about rural and underserved communities, the health and health care of their citizens, and the ability to
attract and retain good jobs for these regions. She has volunteered for 21 years at the Missions of Mercy free dental clinics held
in Wise County in the coalfields of Central Appalachia where dental care remains the service most in demand. These clinics
have treated over 68,000 dental patients and provided more than $47.3 million dollars of donated care. She is convinced that
these clinics are the best opportunity for elected officials and policy makers to learn about situations that force people to sleep in
their cars and wait in long lines to receive basic health care. Pratt freely invites anyone who wants to see first-hand what poor
access to health care looks like in this country to attend, while observing appropriate COVID-19 protocols. A life-changing
experience is guaranteed.