Senior Policy Analyst
Dharia McGrew is a policy analyst for the California Dental Association, where she primarily focuses on improving the oral health of low-income Californians served by the Denti-Cal program. Previously, she was a senior policy consultant in the California State Assembly Health Committee, where she analyzed legislation relating to biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, public health, food safety, and health disparities in underserved communities. McGrew came to public policy in Sacramento as a 2012 CCST Science & Technology Policy Fellow, spending her fellowship year placed in the Office of Assemblymember Wieckowski and the Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials, where she worked on issues relating to drinking water safety, higher education, health, and consumer protections.
McGrew earned a PhD from Brandeis University in Molecular & Cell Biology and a BA in biology from Mount Holyoke College. She has more than 10 years of experience as a laboratory researcher studying genetics, vision disease, and cancer biology, with additional career experience including teaching, publishing, and working in an industrial glue factory. She has lived all over the United States, from Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands, spending 16 years in Massachusetts before returning to her home state of California.