Wendy Hawkins (she/her) is a policy analyst at RAND. Her research and policy interests include behavioral health, HIV, harm reduction, reproductive justice, healthy equity, and SDOH, with a focus on food insecurity. Hawkins prioritizes community engagement and centering voices of people with lived experience. At RAND, she contributes to both project management and qualitative data collection and analysis. She has contributed to projects focused on 988/911 interoperability, peer support specialists, food insecurity, psychiatric bed shortages, clinical training programs for underserved populations, technical expert panels in Indigenous communities, and statewide evaluations of various behavioral health programs.
Prior to joining RAND, Hawkins' work focused on primary care integration and she conducted quantitative and qualitative analysis, led cross-regional collaborations, and provided strategy and policy recommendations in Michigan. Additionally, she has worked in HIV research focusing on breaking down barriers to care for LGBTQ+ Black and Latino youth in Los Angeles County and worked in harm reduction services, providing wrap around care for people who use drugs in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Hawkins graduated with her Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a focus on social policy.
B.A. in environmental science & policy, Michigan State University; M.P.P. in social policy, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
