Patrick H. Gardner

Patrick Gardner, founder of Young Minds Advocacy, focusses on children’s mental health law and policy, and its impacts on youths involved with child welfare, juvenile justice, special education, health/mental health, and other systems. For more than twelve years Patrick was a senior attorney and the deputy director at the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) in Oakland, California. At NCYL, Patrick led efforts to improve access to appropriate mental health care for at-risk youth in California and beyond. He served as co-counsel on statewide class action lawsuits seeking improved access to mental health care for Medicaid-eligible youth in Arizona, California, and Washington. He initiated and oversaw NCYL’s work to develop and improve juvenile mental health courts, and he was the catalyst for its advocacy against sex trafficking of foster children. Patrick also worked on issues involving special education related services, children’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI), zero tolerance in schools, developmental disabilities, children with special health care needs, child abuse and neglect, and privacy and consent.

Prior to joining NCYL in 1999, Patrick spent 17 months coordinating a national campaign for Consumers Union in San Francisco to protect billions in non-profit public assets controlled by lenders in the student loan industry. Previously, he was Hawaii County Managing Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii (LASH), focusing on a range of public benefit programs, domestic violence, and consumer issues. From 1995-96, he also worked for the Hawaii Justice Foundation and was instrumental in securing passage of the nation’s most liberal welfare reform legislation, according to the Washington Post. After leaving LASH, Patrick served as a member of its Board of Directors for eight years.

Patrick began his career with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation as a legislative and policy advocate. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an Editor of the Journal on Law and Politics, and he earned his B.S. degree in Agricultural Economics, Magna Cum Laude, from Virginia Tech. Patrick presently serves on the California Child Welfare Council. He was a founding board member of the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. Patrick and his co-counsel received the California Mental Health Advocates for Children and Youth’s “Advocate of the Year” award for his work on the Katie A. v. Bonta lawsuit in 2014.