Tomás Guarnizo, National Urban Fellow

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Tomás Guarnizo

Tomás Guarnizo is our first National Urban Fellow. He will be completing his Masters in Policy Management at the McCourt School of Public Policy while he works with us on our maternal/early childhood health and managed care projects.

As a Fellow, Tomás aims to integrate his direct service experience with his knowledge of public policy to enact sustainable social change. A graduate of Vassar College, Tomás has spent the last four years in public health research and services, most recently leading the health equity agenda of California’s COVID-19 Testing Task Force to increase access to testing for California’s underserved and underrepresented communities. As a Senior Program Analyst at the Maternal Child & Adolescent Health Division of the California Department of Public Health, Tomás advised leadership on division-wide initiatives to increase healthcare access for California’s mothers, children, and adolescents. As a former medical interpreter and outreach specialist and coordinator of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, he will no doubt bring important lessons learned from California on ways Medicaid can seek to better engage and empower Latino families in their health.

 

Latest From Tomás

Doula Services in Medicaid: Pathways and Payment Rates (Part 3 in a series)

As awareness around the worsening maternal mortality crisis increases, states continue to look towards covering doula care in Medicaid as a potential strategy to improve birth outcomes, particularly for birthing people of color. More than half the states are working towards Medicaid coverage for doula care. But how can states implement these programs effectively and […]

Doula Services in Medicaid: State Progress in 2022

During last April’s Black Maternal Health Week, hosted by Black Mammas Alliance, policymakers, advocates, and community members came together to shed light and share policy solutions to combat the current maternal health crisis greatly affecting Black and brown birthing people in the US, which only worsened with the pandemic. The most recent CDC data shows […]

Lessons Learned from Early State Experiences Using Medicaid to Expand Access to Doula Care

The United States is currently experiencing a maternal health crisis, but it’s pregnant people of color who experience its worst effects: Black women, American Indian, and Alaska Native women are up to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women and are also more likely to experience severe complications from pregnancy […]