Welcoming Jaime Arredondo Sanchez Lira to the School of Public Health and Social Policy

The faculty and staff of the School of Public Health and Social Policy are pleased to announce that Jaime Arredondo Sanchez Lira joined PHSP as an assistant professor in September, 2021.

Jaime Arredondo Sanchez Lira completed his PhD in Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and San Diego State University (SDSU). He studied politicalscience and economics at the lnstituto Tecnol6gico Aut6nomo de Mexico (ITAM) and obtained a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at UCSD. Prior to that, he worked for four years as the Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Public Security in the State Government of Quintana Roo, where he gained extensive experience in coordinating the implementation of federal programs and establishing partnerships with localuniversities.

He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) in Vancouver, Canada, with a focus on the implementation and evaluation of a drug checking pilot to address the fentanyl overdose crisis. Previously, he helped implement a police training program (ESCUDO) in the city of Tijuana on occupational health and harm reduction. His research interests include adapting and implementing harm reduction interventions based on empirical evidence, to improve the health outcomes of people who use drugs.

He is a board member with the NGO Verter, in Mexicali, Mexico, where he helped create the first Safe Consumption Site in Latin America, and the fourth in the world exclusively for women. He also works as a researcher at the NGO Prevencasa, in Tijuana, Baja California, helping implement overdose prevention programs and the first fentanyl detection system in the country. His research seeks to transform the public debate by viewing substance use as a public health issue rather than a public safety one.