2020-2021 CHCI-PepsiCo Nutritional Health Public Policy Fellow
Hometown: Park City, Illinois
School: Pomona College
Degree: B.A. in Molecular Biology
Placement: Office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky
Alfredo Reyes-Guzman was raised in Waukegan and Park City, Illinois. Growing up in predominantly low-income communities, he witnessed how a lack of resources in healthcare directly affected his communities, leading him to help improve their situation. Alfredo graduated from Pomona College, where he became the first in his family to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology and a minor in Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies.
During his tenure at Pomona, Alfredo explored different areas of healthcare. He was led to research at Northwestern University by improving point-of-care treatments and diagnostics for HIV patients. He explored integrative medicine at Renovi Medicine to improve patient care practices in both English and Spanish. He also volunteered at Jefferson Methodist Hospital to engage with physicians in the emergency department and learn about patient-doctor relationships. After working on these different areas of health and developing an understanding of the economic and ethical disparities in both healthcare and public health, Alfredo decided to explore the impact of healthcare policy and understand the shortcomings he witnessed that impacted his marginalized communities.
As a CHCI Public Policy Fellow, Alfredo hopes to engage in the process of creating healthcare policy that makes an impact on marginalized communities and the physicians who practice it. Alfredo hopes to pursue medical school in the future, with an end goal to improve the standard of care for patients regardless of socioeconomic status (SES), immigration status, gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, or level of education as well as improve the work environment and diversity of medical professionals in the healthcare field.