Featured Researcher: Jevay Grooms
Jevay Grooms is a research associate in the NBER’s programs on the Economics of Aging and the Economics of Health. She co-leads the research network on Health and Healthcare Variations across the Population at the NBER’s Center for Aging and Health Research. She is an associate professor of economics at Howard University, where she co-directs the Center for an Equitable and Sustainable Society.
Grooms is an economist who studies barriers to healthcare access and improving health outcomes among underserved and vulnerable populations, with particular attention to how poverty and the legacy of wealth inequality contribute to health outcomes. One line of her research focuses on substance use disorders and how public policies such as prescription drug monitoring programs and Medicaid expansions affect them. A current project examines the impact of living in substandard housing on health outcomes. Grooms has also conducted research on the determinants of willingness to participate in clinical research. She co-directs the Alzheimer’s Trial Recruitment Innovation Lab, a collaboration between Howard University and the University of Southern California that focuses on enrolling representative populations in clinical and pre-clinical trials related to Alzheimer’s disease. She also heads a research lab at Howard University that helps to fund and mentor students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Her research has been funded by numerous organizations, including the American Heart Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Social Security Administration. From 2020 to 2025, she served as a coordinator for the American Economic Association’s Summer Training Program, which aims to prepare undergraduates for doctoral programs in economics. She has co-organized several NBER conferences.
Grooms earned a BS in economics and political science from Loyola Marymount University and a PhD in economics from the University of Florida. Prior to joining the faculty at Howard University, she was an NIH Senior Fellow at the University of Washington.
Grooms says that her most important title is “mom.” She and her husband are raising four children, aged nine months to thirteen years. Family time is filled with staying active, traveling, and gathering around good food. She takes particular joy in passing on her love of cooking and baking to her children. Weeknights often find them preparing meals together, while weekends are set aside for baking.
