Claire Garrido-Ortega, M.P.H., C.H.E.S.

Ms. Garrido-Ortega is a full-time lecturer in the Department of Health Science and has taught HSC 400 Principles of Epidemiology, HSC 401 Community Health Education, HSC 402 Applied Concepts in Community Health Education, HSC 421 Health Behavior, HSC 425 Human Sexuality and Sex Education, HSC 500 Principles of Epidemiology, and HSC 535 Health Promotion and Risk Reduction. She is also a former lecturer in the Department of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies where she taught WGSS 101 Women and Their Bodies and WGSS 102 Women in Contemporary Society.

Ms. Garrido-Ortega is currently serving as a Co-Chair for the ºÚÁÏÍø Tobacco-Free Task Force and BREATHE Campaign. She also serves on the City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, Coalition for a Smoke-Free Long Beach, Fresh Air Dining Long Beach.

Ms. Garrido-Ortega earned a Master of Public Health with a Specialization in Community Health Education from California State University, Long Beach (ºÚÁÏÍø).  She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist with The National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.

Ms. Garrido-Ortega’s research interests include women’s health, epidemiology, racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in health. 

Ms. Garrido-Ortega’s contributions to research are published in the Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, The Praeger Handbook of Environmental Health, and in Smoking and Women’s Health of Nova Science Publishers, and in the Journal of Religion and Health.  She has presented research at various scientific conferences of the American Public Health Association, Society for Epidemiologic Research, and the Southern California Public Health Association. Ms. Garrido-Ortega recently collaborated with the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and the Department of Sociology to conduct sexual and reproductive health research at ºÚÁÏÍø.  Ms. Garrido-Ortega has worked as the Project Director for the Cambodian Tobacco Research Initiative and worked with the under-researched Cambodian American community of Long Beach, California. Prior to this, she assisted with conducting research on the cross-national comparison of patterns of substance abuse along the United States/Mexico border. 

Her recent publications include:

  • Martin N, Baralt L, Garrido-Ortega C. What’s Religion Got to Do with It? Exploring College Students’ Sexual and Reproductive Health Knowledge and Awareness of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Relation to Their Gender and Religiosity. Journal of Religion and Health, 2017, June 26.
  • Friis RH, Kugler J, Pallasigui J, Garrido-Ortega C, Wankie C. Global diffusion of smoke-free bars laws that prevent exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. In: Friis RH, ed. The Praeger Handbook of Environmental Health. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2012. ISBN 0313386005. 
  • Friis RH, Garrido-Ortega C, Safer A, Wankie C, Forouzesh M. Socioepidemiology of Cigarette Smoking among Cambodian Americans in Long Beach, California.  Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 2011, May 18. Available via Pubmed. 
  • Friis RH, Garrido-Ortega C, Griego P, Long S, Acosta-Deprez V. Smoking and tobacco use among Asian Pacific Islander women. In Smoking and Women’s Health, Wesley MK and Sternbach IA (Eds.) Nova Science Publishers, 2008. ISBN 978-1-60456-148-7.