Hunger Fellow Alum Riani Carr to Receive Rising Star Award

The Congressional Hunger Center is pleased to announce that Riani Carr (Emerson ’21) will be recognized with the Rising Star Award at the 2025 Hunger Leadership Awards, to be held on June 4 in Washington, D.C. The Rising Star Award is given each year to a Congressional Hunger Center fellowship alum who has demonstrated excellence in their field within five to seven years after graduating from the fellowship.

Riani works on the Aspen Financial Security Program’s (FSP) Benefits Transformation Initiative, with the goal of closing benefit gaps, enhancing state capacity, and modernizing and integrating responsive public and workplace benefits. She also manages the program’s Community Advisory Group, a group of six leaders with lived experience of financial insecurity whose insights and expertise inform FSP’s research and recommendations. Her work with the Community Advisory Group reflects her belief that policy change starts with community expertise, a central principle of the Emerson National Hunger Fellowship.

Riani is a graduate of Wake Forest University. As an Emerson Fellow, she was placed with the Chicago Food Policy Action Council and the Aspen Institute. She was a member of our inaugural Legacy Leaders Institute in 2023, which focused on board service as a lever for social change. Riani currently serves on the Hunger Center Alum Council and as a mentor for current Emerson fellows.

“Through the Emerson Fellowship, I gained the skills, creative space, and connections to shape a career younger me didn’t know was possible,” Riani said: “One rooted in abundance, community expertise, and meaningful impact, and one that I am honored to lead.”

Riani, along with Leland Alum Amanda Rives, Community Champion Franklin Food Bank, and others will be recognized for their achievements at the Hunger Leadership Awards, our annual celebration that brings together leaders from government, philanthropy, the private sector, and the wider anti-hunger community to recognize distinguished leaders whose vision and commitment are building the momentum to achieve zero hunger in the U.S. and around the world.