Profile
Claudia Rafful, MSc, is a PhD student in the UCSD-SDSU Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health, Global Health Track. She received her MSc in Substance Misuse from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and BS in Psychology from the Universidad de las Américas, Puebla in Mexico. She has worked at the Mexican National Institute of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute in socioepidemiological studies related to substance use and mental health. Claudia completed her international practicum comparing the role of public health in drug policies in Mexico and Uruguay. Specifically by contrasting the “Narcomenudeo law”, which stipulated the specific drug quantities considered as personal use (vs. drug trafficking) and the legalization of the commercialization, distribution and use of cannabis, respectively. Her dissertation research is focused on the impact of involuntary drug treatment on HIV risk behaviors among people who inject drugs in Tijuana, Mexico. Her research interests are evidence-based drug policy, implementation research and global mental health.
