Dr. Guendelman is Chair of the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program as well as a Professor of Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. She is also currently Chair of the World Health Organization’s Panel on Reproductive Health for the America’s. Dr. Guendelman is primarily interested in the relationship between maternity leave, stress, and birth outcomes among working women. Additionally, she serves on CHBRP’s public health team. 

Dr. Guendelman received her PhD from UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare and prior to joining the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, she worked as a clinical social worker. Recently, she constructed a maternity leave decision-making tool which is currently under evaluation. Additionally, she is conducting a binational health study comparing the preterm births of Mexico-born mothers residing in Mexico and California, as well as another study that compares overweight, obesity, and weight control among women of Mexican origin residing in Mexico and the US.