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Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows,
2004-2005
Full Alphabetical listing:
Will Connors
Will is working to establish the Client Choice
food pantry model as a feasible option for the Food Bank of
Alaska's partner agencies throughout the state, in order to
improve the quality of service, efficiency and economic stability
of the food pantries. As Client Choice Coordinator, Will is
conducting site visits to many of the 100 partners in urban
and rural Alaska to determine the viability of implementing
the Client Choice model, and encourage food pantries to do
so. He is also producing a report based on his findings and
a tool kit to assist food providers with this transition in
the future.
Education and Experience: Will is a 2004
graduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned a degree
in English and sociology. He has worked with developmentally
disabled children in New Hampshire, children with AIDS in
Boston, underserved middle schoolers in Brooklyn, and determined
high schoolers in Chicago. Will led a service trip to Costa
Rica, and worked on construction projects in Honduras, Mississippi,
and Chicago.
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Shawn Powers
Shawn is developing a food safety training course
and manual for Food Bank of Alaska's partner agencies throughout
the state. He is working closely with the recently formed
Kids Café program in Anchorage and is investigating
ways to incorporate Native Alaskan foods into food safety
training materials. The ultimate goal of his project is to
create a Safe Food Handling Certificate Program for the food
bank to offer to emergency food organizations in Alaska.
Education and Experience: Shawn graduated
Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a degree in economics.
While at Williams, he served for three years as director of
Williams Recovery of All Perishable Surplus (WRAPS), which
distributes surplus dining hall food to agencies serving the
needy in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Shawn also
organized and led alternative spring break trips to Vanceburg,
Kentucky and Washington, D.C., and served as community service
coordinator for the Newman Catholic Association. He spent
his junior Winter Study in Haiti, where he helped repair dirt
roads and conducted research on agricultural cooperatives.
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Barrett Ebright
Barrett is serving as the Backyard Garden Fellow
with the Community Food Security Center, providing backyard
gardening support to Tucson community members who grow food
to provide for their families. She is gathering resources
for backyard and small scale producers to support sales to
local markets; researching important food regulations and
developing action steps necessary for backyard gardeners to
meet these regulations; and coordinating with the food bank's
Mobile Market Fellow to identify ideal locations for two mobile
markets. Barrett is also expanding and editing the second
edition of the Tucson Garden Guide.
Education and Experience: Barrett is
a 2004 graduate of Willamette University, where she earned
a BA in sociology. She worked at an after school program for
at-risk children, and coordinated campus events to raise awareness
about social justice issues. Barrett has had academic and
practical experience with both urban and rural issues: she
served as a case manager for low-income housing residents
in Chicago, and later as an Undergraduate Rural Poverty Research
and Policy Fellow with the Rural Policy Research Institute.
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Chandra Kring
As the Mobile Market Fellow, Chandra is working to expand
distribution of groceries provided by the food bank, and increase
access to nutritionally healthy and varied foods throughout
rural locations in Pima County. She is conducting research
to determine ideal locations for the mobile markets, initiating
the development and implementation of two markets, and designing
nutrition education and food program materials for presentation,
discussion, and distribution at the markets.
Education and Experience: Chandra earned a Bachelor
of Arts degree from The Evergreen State College with a focus
in community studies and public policy. At Evergreen, she
produced a documentary, "Homeless in Olympia," that
portrayed a group of homeless individuals' fight against targeted
ordinances. She is also an active member of the Welfare Rights
Organizing Coalition and served as a VISTA Volunteer with
Habitat for Humanity.
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Dennis Barrett and Laura Tatum
Dennis Barrett and Laura Tatum are working in
the central valley of California on a collaborative project
with USDA, Foodlink for Tulare County, Fresno Community Food
Bank, and Fresno Metropolitan Ministry. Tulare and Fresno
Counties have the highest agricultural production rates in
the United States, but are the two poorest counties in the
state of California and, in turn, face extremely high rates
of food insecurity. Focusing on food stamp outreach, the project
aims to identify the barriers to food stamp access, establish
a food stamp task force in Tulare County, and generate creative
solutions to increase the county's 50% participation rate
in the food stamp program.
Education and Experience: Dennis graduated
magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a double
major in political science and history in the Honors Program.
He tutored youth in South Bend, worked with the student run
national publication Changing Times, served as dorm president,
and organized a weeklong program encouraging students to employ
their talents in the service of others. Dennis also founded
a Notre Dame Chapter of the Children's Defense Fund, and interned
in D.C. with Human Rights Watch and the Children's Defense
Fund.
Education and Experience: Laura
graduated from Bowdoin College in 2004 with a B.A. in sociology
and Spanish. She served on the Common Good Grant Committee
and was involved in a variety of volunteer programs on poverty
and education at Bowdoin. She studied abroad in La Paz, Bolivia,
interned at a family support center, raised funds through
the San Francisco AIDS Walk, and led middle-schoolers in community
service activities at a camp in her hometown of Palo Alto,
California.
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P.J. Andrews
P.J. is working with D.C. Hunger Solutions to
improve access to food stamps and child nutrition programs
for eligible families in the District of Columbia. He is monitoring
the administration of the federal child nutrition programs,
creating marketing and outreach tools for the School Breakfast
Program, and partnering with other community organizations
to conduct events to promote the food stamp program to immigrant
populations.
Education and Experience: P.J. is a 2004 graduate
of Tufts University where he majored in American Studies,
minored in Africa in the New World Studies, and completed
an honors thesis examining Cape Verdean American identity.
He has also completed the Public Policy and International
Affairs fellowship at the University of Michigan. P.J. co-founded
and coordinated the Multiracial Organization of Students at
Tufts, and worked at Radio LOG, a community radio station
that works to empower teenage girls.
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Alexis Bylander
Alexis is working with D.C. Central Kitchen's
Campus Kitchen Project. She is collaborating with student
leaders and client representatives to create a Campus Kitchens
Nutrition Initiatives Guide. She is researching and developing
three "implementation kits" for nutrition-focused
programming, focusing on important nutrition issues such as
obesity, diabetes, culturally appropriate healthy nutrition
habits, and making healthy choices while living on a limited
budget.
Education and Experience: Alexis earned
a degree in political science from Concordia College in 2004.
She also studied public policy in seven European countries
and spent a semester abroad studying in Malta. She participated
in Concordia's mock trial team, the TOCAR anti-racism taskforce,
and was co- leader for a Habitat for Humanity trip to Nicaragua.
She also completed a research project on the feasibility of
enacting a universal living wage in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
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Andrea Matsuoka and Daniel Murphy
Andrea Matsuoka and Daniel Murphy are working
with four Florida schools to develop pilot school breakfast
programs. They are researching breakfast programs and participation
at the state, county, district, and school levels; facilitating
meetings with school administrators, teachers, students, parents,
and health center staff; designing and compiling an evaluative
tool to assess the pilots' impact; and conducting outreach
efforts to maximize participation in the new programs. They
are also working with Florida Action for Healthy Kids and
representatives of the state Departments of Health and Education
to develop a plan of action for the Florida Food Security
Team.
Education and Experience: Andrea graduated
with honors from Williams College, where she earned a Bachelor
of Arts in political science. She was an outreach coordinator
and counselor for the Rape & Sexual Assault Network, served
on the President-appointed Committee on Diversity and Community,
worked as a Junior Advisor, and facilitated the student-run
Williams Community Building Program. After an internship at
the Institute for Defense & Disarmament Studies, her research
on nonproliferation was published in the Arms Control Reporter.
Education and Experience: Daniel is a
graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he majored
in math and economics. He completed a thesis project combining
game theory and Northern Ireland politics based on research
he conducted while in Belfast. Dan also worked in a morgue
for the Visible Human Project (a biomedical research project),
and his school activities included serving as a diversity
educator and participating in service projects through the
Center for Social Concerns.
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Faith Nyirenda
Faith is working at Center for Economic Progress
to connect hunger-related organizations to Earned Income Tax
Credit (EITC) outreach by linking the Center to key anti-hunger
partners and organizations. Faith is establishing these working
relationships to exchange information regarding program services
and initiatives, and encourage ongoing collaborative EITC
outreach/anti-hunger efforts to benefit low-income families.
Education and Experience: Faith graduated
from the University of Southern California in 2003 with a
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She participated
in USC's Alternative Spring Break program in Uruguay and Argentina
where she helped create a sustainable garden for the elderly
in Montevideo and restored a community kitchen. Faith has
also been involved with organizations that provide enrichment
and educational programming to children from low-income families
and foster children.
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Sarah Osmer
As a Worker Rights Advocate at Chicago Interfaith
Committee on Worker Issues, Sarah is supporting low-wage Latino
workers in Chicago who seek to improve conditions in their
workplace. She is also initiating collaborative partnerships
between the Worker Center and local anti-hunger and asset
development organizations, and designing a popular education
piece that illustrates the link between workers' low wages
and hunger issues using workers' personal stories.
Education and Experience: Sarah graduated
summa cum laude from Emory University with a BA in sociology
and religion, and a minor in community building and social
change. She participated in the Kenneth Cole Fellowship in
Community Building and Social Change, studied abroad in Costa
Rica, and wrote an honors thesis on mixed-income housing.
She has also worked for Habitat for Humanity, a substance
abuse treatment center for homeless women, homelessness prevention
agencies, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she helped
develop an affordable housing plan and coordinated public
benefits outreach efforts.
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Lucinda Megill
Lucinda is building partnerships between the
Hope House, the Crescent City Farmers Market, and the Economics
Institute to expand access to the market for those using food
stamps, and to promote the market in the neighborhoods surrounding
Hope House. Lucinda is also developing community gardening
initiatives in the St. Thomas neighborhood, creating a nutrition
education tool for use at the Hope House and other literacy
organizations, and helping to staff the Hope House Food Pantry
and Resource Center.
Education and Experience: Lucinda is
a 2004 graduate of Juniata College where she received a degree
in Peace and Conflict Studies and Elementary Education. She
was a facilitator and campaign leader for the Juniata College
Peace Organization, where she focused on fair trade coffee
and landmine removal. She has worked with Habitat for Humanity
and other service organizations around the United States,
Haiti, Nicaragua, England, Romania and Ecuador. Lucinda is
also certified to teach English as a Second Language.
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Alexandra Cawthorne
Alexandra is conducting a research and mapping
project on the intersections among housing, emergency assistance,
and health in several New Orleans neighborhoods. She is designing
a survey instrument, conducting interviews, and participating
in city council and community organization meetings and hearings
related to hunger, health, and housing. She will also be supporting
the transitional housing program at Hope House, a local direct
service provider.
Education and Experience: Alexandra is
a graduate of Vassar College where she earned a dual degree
in psychology and urban studies. She spent a semester at American
University with the Transforming Communities Program, and
is particularly interested in issues affecting disenfranchised
communities of color, such as prison reform and education.
She assisted with transitional services at a correctional
facility, and completed internships with the National Alliance
to End Homelessness and the National Alliance of Black School
Educators.
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Katherine Mastman
Katy has been trained in food stamp policy,
and is researching the effects of state regulations on immigrant
access to benefits. She is working with local community organizations
to coordinate food stamp outreach to Latin American immigrants,
track the cases of the clients she registers, and document
systematic barriers to the food stamp program.
Education and Experience: Katy earned
a B.A. from Brown University, with a double major in political
science and honors community health. She spent one semester
in Australia, another in Ecuador, and conducted research in
Guatemala and Mexico on foreign assistance and women's health.
She worked with Oxfam America in Australia, served as a mentor
in an outdoor learning program for Dominican girls, and interned
for her state assemblywoman and the Global Policy Forum.
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Deanna Wilson
Deanna is working on the Children's Sentinel
Nutrition Assessment Program, interviewing caregivers of children
to determine the effect of federal programs on children's
health. She is leading outreach efforts, identifying potential
community partners, writing popular reports and policy briefs
to disseminate C-SNAP findings, and creating an advocate network
in which to share research and resources. She is also performing
research assistance for the Cost of a Healthy Diet project
that analyzes the ability of families receiving public assistance
benefits to purchase such a diet in Boston.
Education and Experience: Deanna graduated
from Swarthmore College in 2004 with a Sociology-Anthropology
major and Biology minor. She coordinated an after-school tutoring
and mentoring program for high school students while participating
in various community organizations that empowered targeted
community members, and educated students about poverty and
homelessness. She also conducted sociological and biological
research, including a project at University of Pennsylvania
where she collaborated on a health services research study
and community intervention involving colon cancer.
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Shireen Cama
Shireen is working with the Food Access Unit
to develop educational and promotional materials about the
nutritional benefits of enrolling in the Food Stamp Program.
She is conducting interviews and focus groups with food providers
and Food Stamp clients to highlight foods that are nutritious,
economical, and culturally sensitive for New York City's diverse
population.
Education and Experience: Shireen graduated
with distinction from Yale in 2004 with a degree in economics.
She served as a freshman counselor, coordinated an elementary
school tutoring program, and volunteered as a community health
educator. She was also a leader in the South Asian Students
and Persian Students Associations, where she helped organize
charity dinners and cultural shows. Shireen has worked on
health education, disaster relief, and HIV prevention in rural
India, as well as health care policy at Families USA, a national
health advocacy organization.
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Mariestella Fischer-Vélez
Mariestella is conducting an extensive research
project on access to food stamps in NYC. The goal of the project
is to use a wide range of sources, including interviews, to
assess what barriers may hinder food stamp access among potentially
eligible low income New Yorkers, to evaluate existing prescreening
tools and other programs designed to increase access, and
to create viable recommendations for future use by this organization
and other relevant entities.
Education and Experience: Mariestella
is a 2001 psychology graduate of Fordham University and earned
a Master's degree in urban education from Temple University
in 2004. Her recent service as a VISTA Volunteer in a Philadelphia
inner city high school included work with the Urban Nutrition
Initiative educating low-income communities about healthy
eating while supporting locally-grown produce and community
gardens. She is originally from Puerto Rico, and as a Latina
she is especially drawn to the ways in which policies affect
and shape the lives of minorities and other economically and
politically disenfranchised groups.
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Erin Hoekstra
Erin is working with the Oregon Faith Roundtable
Against Hunger to engage the religious community in dialogue
and activism with anti-hunger advocates. She is expanding
the organization by developing local roundtables across the
state, and adding a Women of Faith component to OFRAH that
gathers women from all faith traditions to advocate against
the root causes of hunger and poverty in Oregon.
Education and Experience: A native Memphian,
Erin graduated from Rhodes College with a double major in
English-creative writing and anthropology/sociology. She organized
a student-run meals program that utilized food salvage from
the campus cafeteria and served as the Hunger and Homelessness
Coordinator. For two summers she interned at the National
Coalition for the Homeless in D.C. as a Civil Rights Policy
Analyst and Grassroots Organizing Fellow.
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David Pedulla
David is working with the Oregon Food Bank to
develop and implement a plan to establish Volunteer Advocacy
Committees at two of the regional food banks within the statewide
network of the Oregon Food Bank. Through outreach, education,
and the formation of the Committees, he is helping to create
new spaces where people can become involved in advocacy work.
Made up of local service providers and food bank volunteers,
these committees will work for policies that help to address
the root causes of hunger in their communities while strengthening
the advocacy capacity of their regional food bank.
Education and Experience: David graduated
from Boston College in the spring of 2004 with a degree in
history. He has worked to combat hunger and homelessness at
Haley House, a multi-service organization for homeless men
in Boston, and through an internship as an organizer on issues
of transportation and racial justice. He also worked with
the Global Justice Project of BC on issues of international
solidarity, which included organizing a delegation of students
to Chiapas, Mexico, to learn from the Zapatista movement in
their struggle for economic, political, and indigenous rights.
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Micah Schwartz
Micah is researching the potential for a 30-day
community-wide menu that could be used by all food bank partner
agencies to collaborate on meal plans that meet federal nutrition
requirements and capitalize on cooperative purchasing. He
is also managing the food bank's participation in the national
America's Second Harvest hunger survey.
Education and Experience: Micah graduated
in 2003 from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in political
and social thought. He completed an honors thesis on the welfare
reforms of the Clinton administration and served as student
body president. After graduation, Micah spent a year teaching
and coaching at a boarding school in the countryside near
London, England.
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Philip Colvin
Phil is working to implement the Child and Adult
Care Food Program (CACFP) at various sites throughout greater
San Antonio. He is researching CACFP policies, reviewing food
bank programs and feeding sites that may be eligible to participate
in CACFP, designing an outreach and educational package to
share with food bank programs and Kids Café sites,
and working with interested locations to implement the program.
Phil is also creating an agency-wide database that will be
used to track services requested by food bank clients and
provide appropriate referrals to clients with specific needs
that can be better met by other community organizations.
Education and Experience: Phil is a 2004
graduate of The College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor
of Arts in political science. He volunteered for Student Programs
for Urban Development, served as a Judicial Advisor, and interned
with the Worcester County Food Bank. While with the Community
Based Learning office, he created the Educated Shopper Program
(ESP), an educational course held in grocery stores that teaches
participants about the importance of good nutrition and saving
money when buying groceries. He also served as a full time
food service director for a Kids Café program in Main
South Worcester.
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Estera Barbarasa
Estera is responsible for creating strategies
to expand the statewide network of educators using the Hunger
101 curriculum. She is researching the history of Hunger 101;
compiling a list of potential Hunger 101 educators; creating
a Hunger 101 orientation packet and workshop for foodbank
agencies, community leaders, educational providers, and others;
and creating media strategies to expand Hunger 101. Estera
is also co-managing the food bank's involvement in the national
America's Second Harvest hunger study.
Education and Experience: Estera is a
2004 graduate of the University of Chicago, with a major in
political science and a minor in psychology. She has tutored
children through the Woodlawn After-School Kids' Program,
researched country condition information for political asylum
seekers, and studied abroad in Italy for two quarters. Her
internship at America's Second Harvest exposed her to the
severe state of hunger and poverty within our borders and
motivated her to work as an anti-hunger advocate.
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Judith Stermer
Judy is working to expand the statewide network
of Kids Cafés in Vermont. She is visiting current Kids
Café sites, designing and conducting a community assessment
for sites, utilizing GIS mapping to analyze potential sites
based on need, creating a Kids Café orientation package
and workshop for interested agencies and community leaders,
and working with dietitians to create menus for the sites.
Judy is also co-managing the food bank's involvement in the
national America's Second Harvest hunger study.
Education and Experience: Judy earned a
Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Religious Studies from the
University of Dayton. Judy was involved in the campus Center
for Social Concern where she developed programs for the Dayton
Campfire Boys and Girls and for the University of Dayton's
Summer Appalachia Program. Judy has also spent time in Guatemala
studying Spanish and working with women and children in transitional
housing.
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