PolicyLab

Maria Christina Herrera is a faculty member at PolicyLab and a fellow in the Academic General Pediatrics (AGP) program managed by Clinical Futures at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dr. Herrera joined the AGP as a second-year adolescent medicine fellow, and she is pursuing a Master of Science in Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her present research focus addresses the intersection of the HIV and opioid use epidemics for adolescents and young adults. She is particularly interested in access to treatment and prevention initiatives for historically marginalized and disenfranchised groups, namely Black and Latinx youth.

Dr. Herrera contributed to healthc are provision and public health efforts during her domestic training in New York City, San Francisco, and with the Indian Health Service on the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Whiteriver, Arizona. She has also worked both clinically and in a research capacity globally in the Dominican Republic, Peru and Mexico, all of which served to deepen her commitment to health equity and poverty alleviation.

Originally from a small rural town in upstate New York, Dr. Herrera completed her undergraduate education with a Bachelor of Arts out of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Columbia University. She received her medical degree from Columbia University prior to completing her residency in the pediatrics PLUS program at the University of California, San Francisco, which trains pediatricians to advance health equity through community engagement and legislative advocacy.