September 10, 2026 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu

Jordan Herring views healthcare as an essential component of public infrastructure.

“Just as we need streets and highways to get us to other places, we need our health,” the health services policy and management (HSPM) assistant professor says. “Health is the foundation that lets people participate in everything else in life. You can't hold a job, raise a family, learn, or contribute to a community if your health is failing and unaddressed. And like physical infrastructure, healthcare works best as a shared system that's maintained collectively.”

Originally from Texas, Herring became interested in healthcare access after routinely seeing people struggle to improve their health. Whether due to cost, stigma, or other barriers unrelated to quality of care, again and again, he observed a disconnect between healthcare needs and services.

“For many conditions, the science already exists to cure, prevent, or manage disease so that a person's life is relatively unaltered,” he says. “But translating groundbreaking scientific developments and health knowledge into real-world outcomes happens inequitably across the United States, producing stark health disparities, where life expectancy and quality of life depend heavily on where you live or where you fall in the income distribution. As the wealthiest country on the planet, I think we can do much better.”

After studying international economics and Spanish at Texas Tech University, Herring made the move to Atlanta to complete a master’s degree in economics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He spent nearly four years as an economic research analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta before making the move to Washington D.C. to study public policy and public administration at George Washington University.

Throughout his doctoral program and then as a postdoc at Stanford University, Herring concentrated his research efforts on how public policies and social structures impact access to healthcare and health outcomes. His areas of interest include Medicaid access to care, behavioral health, immigration policy and health, HIV, and health workforce policy.

“One of the topics I’ve become interested in recently is how immigration policies and enforcement create chilling effects and reduce access to healthcare,” says Herring.

After learning about these experiences directly from immigrants in his family and community, he used his background to investigate these intersecting factors more closely.  Finding that increased enforcement and immigration policy changes have led to a reduction in healthcare use by immigrants, Herring’s results were published in The Milbank Quarterly and Social Science & Medicine and cited in an episode of Tradeoffs, a health economics podcast. 

He decided to begin his academic career at the Arnold School because – of all the places he’s lived in the U.S. – the Southeast has felt like home. Plus, he loved the people he met during the interview process.

“I was impressed by the credentials and research among the faculty members, but what set the HSPM department apart was how collaborative and supportive everyone seemed and how dedicated the department is to strengthening the evidence base on how best to improve health outcomes,” Herring says. “The Arnold School’s rich history also stood out to me. It’s one of the first public health schools in the country and has an expansive program to offer students at all levels. I really felt like there were so many opportunities to engage in research and engage with students to train the next generation of public health leaders.”

“We are delighted to welcome Jordan to HSPM,” says chair Brad Wright. “He is an exceptionally well-trained and already accomplished scholar whose work deepens our expertise in health equity-focused health services research, particularly among Medicaid enrollees and other populations too often underserved by our healthcare system. He brings both methodological rigor and a deep commitment to tackling consequential policy questions – exactly the combination we need as we work to address some of the most pressing health challenges confronting communities not only in South Carolina but across the South and the nation.”