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 Adrienne Alexander
Field Placement: Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans and Acadiana (New Orleans, LA)
Adrienne organized community members for an Acadiana Community Food Security Conference and established a regional food policy coalition in the Lake Charles and Lafayette metropolitan areas of southwest Louisiana. She also laid the groundwork for an Agency Advisory Council to advise the Food Bank on issues of importance to member agencies.
Hunger Free Community Report: Fighting Hunger with Policy: A Model for Establishing a Food Policy Coalition includes profiles of the Acadiana Food Policy Coalition’s ten parishes, practical notes on organizing, materials from the Acadiana Community Food Security Conference, and recommendations.
Policy Placement: Center for Community Change (Washington, D.C.)
Adrienne is helping to inform the low-wage work division’s 2009 policy agenda by working with coalition members, tracking legislation, and researching existing models. Adrienne is also writing materials about the right to organize, the enforcement of existing labor laws, the minimum wage, and workforce development issues.
Education and Experience: Adrienne graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2007 with a degree in political science and minors in Spanish and history. She served as captain of the tennis team, launched her college’s chapter of Rock the Vote, and was an active member of Latinas Unidas. Adrienne has interned with the Atlanta City Council and WABE radio (Atlanta's NPR affiliate), volunteered teaching English to Latin American immigrants, and studied abroad in Oviedo, Spain. In 2006 Adrienne was named a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow.
 Lindsey Baker
Field Placement: Food & Friends (Washington, D.C.)
Food & Friends is an organization that provides nutritional counseling, prepared meals, and groceries to individuals living with life-challenging illnesses. Lindsey conducted 50 home visits to assess the unique needs of clients living with diabetes in addition to HIV/AIDS or cancer. She also assisted in the development of a diabetes prevention toolkit by surveying diabetes health care professionals on best practices and community needs.
Hunger Free Community Report: Improving Services: Suggestions for Food & Friends to Better Serve Diabetic Clients examines diabetic clients' management of diabetes, their understanding of received services, and suggestions for service improvements. Combining data from home assessments and a focus group, background literature, and the American Diabetes Association's nutrition recommendations, the report presents a plan for Food & Friends to improve its services for diabetic clients.
Policy Placement: America’s Second Harvest (Washington, D.C.)
As part of the Government Relations and Public Policy Department, Lindsey is assisting staff with their research, advocacy, and public education initiatives. She is currently developing an electronic briefing book on federal nutrition programs and anti-hunger legislative efforts in Congress.
Education and Experience: Lindsey graduated with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University with a degree in psychology and sociology. At Emory, she was a Tritt Social Justice Fellow, an Emory Scholar, and the Co-Director of Volunteer Emory. She studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia, and participated in alternative break trips to New Orleans and Belarus. Originally from Tucson, AZ, Lindsey has worked for Angel Charity for Children, the Decatur-DeKalb YMCA, and the DeKalb Child Advocacy Office.
 Fatima Carson
Field Placement: Connecticut Food Bank (New Haven, CT)
Fatima assisted in the implementation of Agency Express, a new web-based program for member agencies to use in obtaining food from the Food Bank’s warehouses. She created reference materials and trained the Food Bank’s staff and the volunteers of partner programs to use the online ordering system.
Hunger Free Community Report: Promoting Client Choice: How Food Pantries Can Most Effectively Alleviate Hunger presents the benefits of increasing client choice in the pantry distribution process. The brochure outlines eight different ways food pantries can increase client choice while also eliminating food waste.
Policy Placement: Food Research and Action Center (Washington, D.C.)
Fatima is analyzing Food Stamp Program participation and practices in 25 large cities for a FRAC publication called Food Stamp Access in Urban America: A City by City Snapshot. She is also creating a toolkit focusing on elderly hunger and Food Stamp Program participation.
Education and Experience: Fatima graduated with Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Earlham College in 2007 with a degree in economics and peace and global studies. She served as a Bonner Scholar, Student Government member, Bonner Congress Representative, Wilderness Staff Member, and tutor. Fatima also taught a cooking class at a local Boys and Girls Club, facilitated a challenge education program aimed at encouraging youth to become first generation college students, studied abroad in Jordan, and processed micro-credit grant proposals from organizations in Kenya, India, and Sierra Leone for Right Sharing of World Resources.
 Katherine Chen
Field Placement: Solid Ground (Seattle, WA)
Katherine worked to increase Rainier Valley residents' access to fresh and affordable produce. Through focus groups and interviews, she assessed how to best enhance economic opportunities while making healthy food options more readily available. She also established the Rainer Valley Growers’ Co-operative to promote farmers markets, urban agriculture, and other community supported projects.
Hunger Free Community Report: Rainier Valley Food Action Project: Increasing Access to Fresh Produce explores various entrepreneurial and agricultural models that Southeast Seattle could adopt to increase community members’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Policy Placement: Association of Nutrition Services Agencies (Washington, D.C.)
Katherine is developing a grassroots advocacy guide for ANSA members and other community-based food and nutrition services programs to use in educating policymakers about the power of nutrition in combating disease. Katherine is also researching the history of the 1969 White House Conference on Food and Nutrition.
Education and Experience: Katherine, a San Francisco native, is a 2007 graduate of the University of California at Berkeley where she majored in public health and minored in public policy. She has researched the role of school gardens in urban middle schools with large minority populations and the impact of particulate matter pollution on elementary school students. Katherine also interned in Senator Tom Harkin’s office through the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars Program.
 Julie Ferreira
Field Placement: Community Food Bank (Tucson, AZ)
Julie researched how small neighborhood corner stores can provide fresh produce and healthy food items to their neighborhoods. She conducted participatory store surveys with area parents, interviewed store owners, and sought partners to explore the viability of a "Healthy Corner Store" initiative in Tucson.
Hunger Free Community Report: Healthy Food at the Corner: Where Choice and Access Meet outlines the potential for corner stores to provide their neighborhoods with healthy food including fresh produce and low-fat dairy.
Policy Placement: RESULTS Educational Fund (Washington, D.C.)
Julie is conducting grassroots outreach to empower people across the country to create the political will to end hunger and poverty. She is working to start new RESULTS chapters, staffing the RESULTS' Diversity Taskforce, and preparing workshops for the RESULTS International Conference.
Education and Experience: Originally from New Jersey, Julie graduated from Earlham College in 2006 with a degree in sociology and anthropology. She was awarded a Plowshares Peace Mini-Grant to study community supported agriculture throughout the Midwest. As a Bonner Scholar, Julie led farm visits and baking classes for area Boys and Girls Clubs. She also lived and volunteered in Portugal and studied in Argentina. Julie served as an Americorps VISTA for a year in Apple Valley, CA where she established a dynamic community garden and educational program, hosted a regional food event, and initiated a Food Security Action Coalition.
 Cody Fischer
Field Placement: Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank (Duquesne, PA)
Cody helped restructure and develop a strategic plan for the Food Bank’s Farm Stand Project in order to improve access to fresh produce in Allegheny County’s low-income communities. He worked to expand the project’s scope by developing goal setting and evaluation tools, mapping socio-economic and grocery access data, and coordinating with new partner organizations throughout the greater Pittsburgh area.
Hunger Free Community Report: Let Them Eat Carrots: Expanding Produce Access in the Greater Pittsburgh Area identifies the major barriers to access among vulnerable populations in current Farm Stand Project communities, explores the tradeoffs among alternative program models for improving produce access, and details a strategic plan for scaling up the Food Bank’s initiatives to reach Allegheny County’s most underserved populations.
Policy Placement: NETWORK (Washington, D.C.)
Cody is collaborating with Catholic social justice organizations and Catholic communities from around the country to help plan a Convention for the Common Good in Philadelphia. Cody is helping to facilitate pre-convention dialogues to build the Platform for the Common Good and creating a presidential candidate chart framed by the principles of Catholic social teaching.
Education and Experience: Cody graduated with honors and departmental distinction from Saint John’s University in 2007 with a degree in economics. He served on the student Senate, tutored Somali refugees at a local Boys and Girls Club, studied abroad in China and France, and represented students on the Saint John’s University Board of Regents. Cody also worked as a government relations intern at CentraCare Health System, launched a non-profit business with a team of fellow Entrepreneurial Scholars, and wrote an honors thesis on the impact of trade liberalization on human development in West Africa.
 Gagan Gupta
Field Placement: Second Harvest Food Bank of New Orleans and Acadiana (New Orleans, LA)
Gagan designed and implemented an emergency food distribution program to make healthy food products more available and convenient for senior citizens. He conducted a needs assessment of the region’s seniors, reviewed existing programs and services, secured funding for a pilot program, and laid the groundwork to support the program’s expansion.
Hunger Free Community Report: After the Storms: Turning the Spotlight on Senior Hunger explores the unique post-hurricane barriers to food security that seniors face, and provides empirically driven estimates of the number of seniors living in poverty throughout New Orleans and the surrounding region.
Policy Placement: RESULTS Educational Fund (Washington, D.C.)
As the domestic health policy fellow, Gagan is overseeing the 2008 Health Care for All Campaign and collaborating with numerous partner organizations in the effort to eliminate health disparities. He is also planning the health care plenary sessions for the RESULTS International Conference and developing long-term goals for the organization’s health policy work.
Education and Experience: Gagan is a 2007 graduate of Davidson College where he received a full-merit Baker Scholarship and earned a degree in political science. A native of Belmont, NC, he helped his local school system become one of the first in the country to eliminate junk food from its vending machines. Gagan served on Davidson’s student government for four years, and was senior class president. He helped organize a student social change movement on campus, conducted research on protracted conflicts in Sudan and the Horn of Africa, taught English and volunteered at a food pantry in Spain, and conducted research on nutrition and water sanitation in refugee camps in India.
 Amber Herman
Field Placement: Community Food Bank (Tucson, AZ)
Amber built partnerships with schools, farmers, state agencies, and non-profit organizations to identify opportunities for providing fresh, regionally grown fruits and vegetables to school cafeterias. She coordinated a Farm to School Health Week for a Tucson school with community partners, media, politicians, and parents. Amber also assisted in developing grant opportunities to continue the Tucson Farm to School Program.
Hunger Free Community Report: Exploring Farm to School: A Facilitator’s Guide to Implementation in Arizona is a tool for community members and food service directors to use as they increase the amount of local produce eaten in Arizona schools. The guide outlines opportunities, barriers, and recommendations for overcoming implementation challenges.
Policy Placement: United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (Alexandria, VA)
Amber is working with the Office of Strategic Initiatives, Partnerships, and Outreach (OSIPO) to evaluate existing FNS partnerships and identify new collaboration opportunities, especially with organizations serving seniors and Latino communities. She is also creating methods to monitor and evaluate future partnerships.
Education and Experience: An Iowa native, Amber is a Harry S. Truman Scholar and a 2006 graduate of Iowa Sate University where she studied public service and administration in agriculture. Amber represented Oxfam America at the G8 Summit in Scotland and at the 2005 United Nations Youth Assembly, served as a keynote speaker on the North American Take Action Tour, and spoke to 24,000 students about international poverty and youth leadership. She has also volunteered in rural Kenya and conducted research in Uganda about youth farmers.
 Brad Johnson
Field Placement: Solid Ground (Seattle, WA)
Brad conducted a household food security assessment of low-income seniors and persons with disabilities living in subsidized housing. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, Brad documented the degree to which residents experience hunger, identified contributing factors that cause hunger, and developed strategies to increase access to the emergency food system.
Hunger Free Community Report: The Food Security for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities Project provides city-level data on food insecurity among seniors and persons with disabilities living in Seattle’s subsidized housing. The report also identifies the barriers that prevent these populations from utilizing the emergency food system and provides recommendations on ways to increase access to the system for isolated and vulnerable adults.
Policy Placement: National Council of La Raza (Washington, D.C.)
As part of the Health Policy team, Brad is working to convene a child nutrition roundtable discussion at La Raza’s annual conference that will incorporate the perspectives of Hispanic serving community-based organizations, researchers, advocates, and other major stakeholders. He is also developing a paper analyzing the trends of poor nutrition and hunger and their co-mobidities among Latino children.
Education and Experience: Brad is a 2007 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned a degree in politics and public policy analysis and a minor in social and economic justice. He studied abroad in South Korea and was named a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow in 2006. Brad served as a teaching assistant in the School of Social Work and worked with the Southwest Central Durham Quality of Life Project. He also conducted an impact analysis of community gardens in Durham public housing communities and implemented a photography research project in the Kibera slum near Nairobi, Kenya.
 David Kane
Field Placement: Boston Medical Center, Medical Legal Partnership for Children (Boston, MA)
Collaborating with lawyers and pediatricians, David worked to address hunger and nutrition from a children's health perspective. He assisted patient families with food stamp applications and low-income utility discounts, conducted intakes at the Energy Clinic, advocated for clients with government agencies, and participated in state-wide hunger advocacy efforts.
Hunger Free Community Report: Food Stamps and Immigrant Families: How Health Care Workers Can Improve Child Health makes the case for food stamps as a tool to improve the health of immigrant children, providing medical professionals with facts and culturally appropriate information to encourage immigrant families to apply for food stamps.
Policy Placement: Center for American Progress (Washington, D.C.)
David is researching federal, state, and local efforts to improve the economic conditions of the poor and middle class for the Poverty and Prosperity Program. He is also providing communications support for the coalition-based campaign to cut poverty in half by 2017.
Education and Experience: David graduated from Northwestern University in 2007 with a degree in education and social policy and a minor in history. At Northwestern, he organized youth in Chicago, volunteered at a local homeless shelter, led alternative spring break trips to Atlanta and San Francisco, earned a certificate in service learning, and studied abroad in Spain. He has served as a policy intern at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, worked as a children’s fitness instructor and camp counselor, and studied undocumented unaccompanied immigrant minors in the American legal system.
 Katherine Moos
Field Placement: California Association of Food Banks (Oakland, CA)
Katherine conducted food stamp outreach projects aimed at California's diverse Latino population. She collaborated with bilingual and bicultural food stamp outreach providers to support best practices and to create a Spanish language food stamp outreach website. Through key informant interviews and focus groups, Katherine examined food security issues of the indigenous Mexican migrant population in California and the potential for reaching this population through food stamp outreach.
Hunger Free Community Report: Documenting Vulnerability: Food Insecurity Among Indigenous Mexican Migrants in California’s Central Valley provides an overview of food insecurity in the Mixtec community, an indigenous Mexican group in Fresno and Madera, CA, and outlines their experience with the emergency food system, their knowledge and use of the Food Stamp Program, and the potential for outreach in this community.
Policy Placement: Migrant Legal Action Program (Washington, D.C.)
Katherine is researching and writing a report about immigrant access to programs such as food stamps, Medicaid, school lunch and breakfast, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), migrant and community clinics, and public education.
Education and Experience: Katherine graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2006 where she studied political science and Spanish. She also studied demography and economics at the University of Havana and researched her thesis on reproductive healthcare in Cuba. After graduating, Katherine worked as a research assistant at Boston Medical Center on the Children’s Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program, a public health study on the impact of Food Stamps on children’s health.
 Elizabeth Oquendo
Field Placement: Logan Square Neighborhood Association (Chicago, IL)
Elizabeth worked with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association to create a wellness council at a local elementary school bringing together parents, community members, and school staff to talk about student health and school wellness. She also contributed to the planning and implementation of the first universal breakfast in the classroom in a Chicago public school and studied its impact on students’ health.
Hunger Free Community Report: Elizabeth created a video documentary of McAuliffe Elementary School’s implementation of the Chicago Public Schools’ pilot program for universal breakfast in the classroom. The film captures the experiences and thoughts of teachers, parents, administrators, and students to showcase the program’s early success.
Policy Placement: The Food Research and Action Center (Washington, D.C.)
Elizabeth is researching and writing a national report on federal and state policies and practices in school food service that are improving quality and participation in the school lunch, breakfast and after-school snack programs. Elizabeth is also developing a guide for after-school providers, school administrators, school food service directors, and other key stakeholders to support local efforts to improve children's access to nutritious food throughout the day.
Education and Experience: Elizabeth graduated from Emory University in 2007 with a degree in sociology and Latin American studies. On campus, Elizabeth was an active volunteer in many Atlanta charities including My House and Project Open Hand. A native of Miami, FL and fluent in Spanish, Elizabeth has worked in Peru on maternal and child health issues, including malnutrition and prenatal care.
 JoEllen Pederson
Field Placement: Connecticut Food Bank (New Haven, CT)
JoEllen assessed the best methods for closing the gap between Food Bank resources and the need for emergency food in Connecticut. Using research and GIS technology, JoEllen mapped the need for emergency food programs throughout Connecticut and recommended strategies for the Food Bank to better address ongoing food insecurity in local communities.
Hunger Free Community Report: Bridging the Gap Between Capacity and Coverage: An Analysis of the Emergency Food System in Connecticut provides an up-to-date geographical overview of the Food Bank’s service area and the capacity of its 600 partner programs to serve their communities.
Policy Placement: Jewish Council for Public Affairs (Washington, D.C.)
JoEllen is mobilizing Jewish communities around the country to engage more heavily in anti-poverty services and policies. She is creating and leading an "issue cluster" that will give leaders of Jewish communities in the U.S. a forum to discuss healthcare, hunger, education, and affordable housing issues and to discuss best practices on addressing them at the local and national level. JoEllen is also planning a conference and service trip to New Orleans focused on addressing issues of race, poverty, and climate change.
Education and Experience: JoEllen is a 2007 graduate of Berea College where she received a degree in sociology with an emphasis in African and African-American studies. After spending summers in Costa Rica and Macedonia working on poverty related initiatives, JoEllen started Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week on her campus. She also served as a Bonner Scholar and ran an after-school program for three years teaching middle school students about community service.
 Will Perreault
Field Placement: Drake University Law School Agricultural Law Center (Des Moines, IA)
In collaboration with Iowa's Department of Education, Will researched the Summer Food Service Program, promoted best practices, helped reduce the gap between eligible and enrolled children, and helped increase the use of local Iowa produce in the program.
Hunger Free Community Report: Drake University and the Congressional Hunger Center’s Presidential Voter Education Guide on Hunger Issues outlines the hunger and food security platform of six of the 2008 Presidential candidates.
Policy Placement: Corporation for Enterprise Development (Washington, D.C.)
Will is researching and analyzing federal asset-building policies to promote savings options for low-income people. By building alliances with both local and national economic development practitioners and private businesses and non-traditional constituencies, Will is facilitating the broader adoption of automatic employee enrollment into savings and investment features.
Education and Experience: Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, Will graduated from Davidson College with a degree he designed in rural poverty studies. At Davidson, Will directed an a cappella group, led students in the National Coalition for the Homeless’ Urban Plunge, participated in a "reverse mission trip" to Nicaragua and renovated homes with the Appalachia Service Project. After graduation, Will assisted in Louisiana's recovery process as Field Coordinator for Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans, and worked in rural Uganda for Promic to strengthen female entrepreneurs’ access to micro-loans.
 Isha Plynton
Field Placement: Drake University Law School Agricultural Law Center (Des Moines, IA)
Isha developed a nutrition screening tool for legal clinics to use in identifying and addressing the food security and nutritional needs of children in the child welfare system. She trained law students at Drake’s Middleton Center for Children’s Rights and promoted the tool’s use by making educational presentations to judges, attorneys, and child advocates statewide.
Hunger Free Community Report: Drake University and the Congressional Hunger Center’s Presidential Voter Education Guide on Hunger Issues illustrates the hunger and food security platform of six of the 2008 Presidential candidates.
Policy Placement: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (Washington, D.C.)
Isha is working to improve access to public benefits for victims of domestic violence by researching and writing a report on state implementation of the Family Violence Option. Isha is also researching the barriers to homeless shelter participation in the Child Care and Adult Food Program.
Education and Experience: Isha graduated from Tufts University in 2007 with a degree in American studies, a concentration in law and politics, and high honors for her thesis. At Tufts, Isha started a college mentoring program for economically underprivileged students and served as a leader in the largest student run community service organization. Isha has interned in Senator Edward Kennedy’s Education Policy Office in Washington, D.C., studied abroad in Ghana, and volunteered at the University of Ghana Hospital.
 Bianca Pullen
Field Placement: Medical Legal Partnership for Children, Boston Medical Center (Boston, MA)
Collaborating with lawyers and pediatricians, Bianca worked to address hunger and nutrition from a children's health perspective. She assisted patient families with food stamp applications and low-income utility discounts, conducted intakes at the Energy Clinic, advocated for clients with government agencies, and worked with the MLPC to identify best practices for the Energy Clinic.
Hunger Free Community Report: Energy Clinic: A Toolbox for Helping Families Heat and Eat outlines the need for both food and fuel assistance in combating food insecurity. The report is being used to encourage replication of the Energy Clinic model in Medical-Legal partnerships nation-wide.
Policy Placement: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (Washington, D.C.)
Bianca is researching the social determinants of obesity for the Joint Center’s Health Policy Institute. The findings will be used to broaden existing partnerships and to initiate changes in relevant policy. Bianca is also co-authoring an article on racial health disparities for Focus Magazine and helping to strengthen partnerships between the Joint Center and anti-hunger organizations.
Education and Experience: Raised in Albuquerque, NM, Bianca is a 2005 graduate of the University of Chicago with a degree in human development and a focus on the social and cultural aspects of medicine. Bianca was a McNair Scholar and presented a paper on how social support systems affect the pregnancy outcomes of young African-American women. After college, Bianca served as a Public Health Nutritionist at a WIC clinic for two years and worked with the Topahkal Family Practice to provide traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine to uninsured patients in Albuquerque.
 David Tian
Field Placement: Food & Friends (Washington, D.C.)
Food & Friends is an organization that provides nutritional counseling, prepared meals, and groceries to individuals living with life-challenging illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and cancer. David conducted Food & Friends’ first focus group study assessing the cultural appropriateness of current services for African American clients with diabetes. He also created a toolkit to evaluate Food & Friends’ potential involvement in diabetes prevention.
Hunger Free Community Report: Identifying Best Practices in Diabetes Prevention is a comprehensive toolkit that forms the foundation for Food & Friends’ potential involvement in primary diabetes prevention. The toolkit’s five modules draw upon health sciences literature and two original studies to offer specific recommendations for determining the target population, intervention strategies, and program duration of diabetes prevention initiatives in Washington, D.C.
Policy Placement: Families USA (Washington, D.C.)
As a member of the Health Policy Department, David is focusing on access and cost issues in the private health insurance market. He is researching and assessing the differences in state regulations of health insurance and the effect of un-insurance on American cities.
Education and Experience: David graduated with honors from Yale University in 2007 with a degree in biology. David coordinated the Yale Hunger and Homelessness Action Project and an afternoon drop-in center for the homeless, interned at the Hill Health Center’s Homeless Health Care Program, and served as a voting member of New Haven’s Homeless Advisory Commission. David also chaired the Asian American Studies Task Force and volunteered at a free health clinic. David was born in Harbin, China and grew up in Georgia with his family.
 Rachel Winch
Field Placement: Public Health Institute, California Department of Health Services (Oakland, CA)
Rachel worked with the Network for a Healthy California to build the prescreening and outreach capacity of the Statewide Food Stamp Information Line. She developed California's Official Statewide Protocol for Telephone-Based Food Stamp Assistance, which is now being used by call center operators throughout the state. Rachel also mapped access to food in Oakland with the Kellogg Food and Fitness grant recipients.
Hunger Free Community Report: Untangling the Lines: Using Phone-Based Assistance to Increase Access to Food Stamps documents efforts throughout the nation to improve access to food stamps using phone-based assistance. The report examines potential opportunities for future phone-based food stamp applications and case management using telephonic signatures.
Policy Placement: House Hunger Caucus (Washington, D.C.)
Rachel is working to increase awareness of domestic and international hunger issues in the House of Representatives. She is coordinating a series of briefings on the impact of rising food costs on international and domestic hunger and is helping to plan a Massachusetts anti-hunger summit.
Education and Experience: Rachel Winch graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Williams College in 2006 with a degree in sociology and Asian studies. She studied abroad in India, served as a campus leader for Students for Social Justice and the Student Global AIDS Campaign, worked as a tutor for high school students in the A Better Chance program, and wrote two sociology theses. After college, Rachel taught fifth and sixth grade at Esperanza Academy, a tuition-free middle school for low-income girls in Lawrence, MA, and biked across the country to raise money for affordable housing.
 Alexander Villaverde
Field Placement: Center for Economic Progress (Chicago, IL)
Alexander provided financial education services to Latino community groups, assisted with the Center’s marketing projects and benefits screening services, and supported Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) outreach activities. He also helped promote asset-building initiatives through the Center’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites and developed training materials for site supervisors and tax preparers.
Hunger Free Community Report: Expanding the EITC’s Effect outlines the supportive services needed prior to tax season to increase the impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The report presents a case study of the Center for Economic Progress’ pilot program, Chicago Supports Workers, which provides financial assistance, financial education, and tax preparation services.
Policy Placement: Corporation for Enterprise Development (Washington, D.C.)
As a member of the Self-Employment Tax Initiative (SETI) project, Alexander is researching federal, state, and local best practices to help self-employed businesses utilize the tax system to build assets.
Education and Experience: Alexander is a 2007 graduate of Colgate University where he majored in Japanese and minored in economics. Alexander studied the factors that led to the current political and economic conditions in Zambia and conducted research on local businesses in the Ogasawara Islands in Japan. Originally from Spanish Harlem, NY, Alexander has worked with low-income teenagers in the Bronx where he facilitated workshops on leadership and community service and organized community-based projects.
 Corey Yarbrough
Field Placement: Just Harvest (Pittsburgh, PA)
Corey worked to develop effective responses to the many barriers food stamp eligible households face in applying, receiving, and recertifying for food stamps. Through qualitative research, he explored the role institutional, behavioral, and individual barriers play in widening the gap between eligibility and participation. Corey proposed solutions to institutional barriers and created and expanded outreach programs aimed at dismantling individual and behavioral barriers.
Hunger Free Community Report: Hunger Crisis in Allegheny County: Increasing Access to the Federal Food Stamp Program is a 10-minute outreach video that addresses the myths and barriers surrounding the Federal Food Stamp Program and provides information about local programs working to dismantle them.
Policy Placement: National Coalition for the Homeless (Washington, D.C.)
As part of the National Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project, Corey is informing homeless individuals about their rights and raising awareness nationwide on the challenges faced by the homeless community. Corey is co-writing NCH’s annual report on hate crimes against the homeless and serving as a media spokesperson on the issue. He is also laying the groundwork for the national “You Don’t Need A Home to Vote” campaign.
Education and Experience: A native of Norfolk, VA, Corey graduated from James Madison University in 2007 with a degree in justice studies and a concentration in global justice and policy. A two-time qualifier for the National Debate Tournament, he served as co-captain of the JMU debate team, helped incorporate race and gender issues into the intercollegiate debate community, and volunteered for many high school debate leagues and programs. Corey also completed research projects analyzing intersectional identities and the social development of felons.
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