Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Jenny S. Guadamuz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Dr. Guadamuz previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the USC School of Pharmacy (Program on Medicines and Public Health) and the USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. She completed her PhD in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaceutical policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She also holds an MS in health policy and administration from UIC and a BA in economics from Saint Louis University.
Dr. Guadamuz uses an interdisciplinary approach to identify how structural determinants (i.e., macro-level systems, institutions, and policies) impact the use of healthcare, especially medications among racial and ethnic minorities. Her current research focuses on health inequities across immigration status. Immigration status is a critical yet overlooked factor influencing disparities because noncitizens endure significant barriers to legal and social protections, including systemic exclusions from healthcare. Dr. Guadamuz also conducts research in the fields of drug utilization (e.g., drug interactions among children), evaluations of policies to mitigate drug risks (e.g.,FDA’s Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies), and the role of pharmacy accessibility in determining access to medications (e.g., disparities in access to naloxone) using administrative claims, surveys, and geospatial data.
Dr. Guadamuz’s research has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, including JAMA, the American Journal of Public Health, and Health Affairs. Her unique research perspective has garnered funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, as part of their inaugural cohort of Health Policy Research Scholars.
