Jennifer Montalvo

Jennifer Montalvo García serves as the leader of the Social Policy Division at Grupo Nexos.  Additionally, she is the Co-Director of the Families First Project.   The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) was enacted as part of Division E of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (H.R. 1892). Among other changes and implications, FFPSA expands federal support for services to prevent the need for children to enter foster care, while adding new restrictions on federal room and board support for some foster children placed in group care settings. As the scientific partner of the Puerto Rico Department of the Family, the Institute aims to provide the coordination, methodology and analytical framework to generate a Policy Analysis, design a FFPSA Pilot Implementation and support FFPSA Full Implementation. Her areas of expertise include  public policy analysis  specializing in drug and substance abuse, wellbeing, economic development, and their impact on infants, youth, and families. Before joining Grupo Nexos, she was a researcher and policy leader at various institutions, including the Institute Third Mission. Her experience extends to social work with Intercambios Puerto Rico, where she engaged directly with the homeless and HIV communities. As a teaching professor at the Social Work Faculty of the University of Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras Campus), she also lectures on drugs and social policies at Universidad Ana Méndez. Her research encompasses Forensics and Substance Abuse, Drug Policies and their effects on the Health System, designing community and NGO programs and interventions, and instructing students on public health perspectives and psychoactive drugs. Montalvo García’s government experience includes overseeing Licensing Procedures for child homes with the Department of the Family in Puerto Rico. She holds a master’s in social work from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and a bachelor’s in social science with a focus on Criminal Justice from Universidad de Puerto Rico, Carolina Campus. She obtained her Diploma in Drug Policies, Health, and Human Rights in Mexico City, DF. Appointed to the Opioid Settlement Remediation Advisory Committee in Puerto Rico, Montalvo Garcíato provides recommendations to the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Health on how the opioid abatement funds received as a result of opioid litigation \ settlements and judgments will be allocated and distributed, : consistent with approved uses only, with the goal of reducing the opioid crisis in Puerto Rico. She actively contributes to academic conferences discussing critical social work approaches, harm reduction for substance use, and the influence of public policy on drugs, health, and human rights.