Announcing the 30th Class of Emerson National Hunger Fellows

Adin Burwell
30th Class, 2023-2024

Adin Burwell is from Atlanta, Georgia, and recently graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Agricultural Science, with minors in Global Health and Crop Management. Adin's involvement in agriculture and food justice began in High School through involvement in her community, and a program with the USDA. After years of growing and donating food to both her local and college community, Adin became interested in policy. She interned at the United States House of Representatives, and is excited to further understand and grow her knowledge about the policies around food and nutrition.

Zhara Edwards
30th Class, 2023-2024

Zhara Edwards is from Cleveland, Ohio, where she graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Public Health from Case Western Reserve University. Zhara’s career interests include child and adolescent health, and hopes to work towards eliminating food insecurity for students in need. One of Zhara’s core beliefs is that a person’s locality should not determine their access to food, education, or other resources. Hunger and poverty are key issues that Zhara would like to address because of their potentially detrimental impact on a young person’s health and development.

Nicholas French
30th Class, 2023-2024

A resident of Southfield, Michigan, Nicholas French recently graduated from Cornell University with a major in Human Development and minors in Creative Writing and Law and Society. Nicholas’ passion for food justice and housing security began in his native Metro-Detroit, where he witnessed the hardships of hunger and the perseverance of the people who overcame it. Nicholas is especially proud of his experience as a Congressional Intern for the offices of former Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and current Congressman Hank Johnson through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Through these experiences, Nicholas was able to conduct research on homelessness and basic needs in his community and provide resources for constituents affected by natural disasters and other issues, and he is excited to continue to grow as a leader.

Alfred Gary III
30th Class, 2023-2024

Originally from Buffalo, New York, Alfred is a graduate of the University at Buffalo, earning his MPH with a concentration in Health Equity. Shaped by his life experiences as a Black male born and raised in Buffalo’s predominantly Black neighborhood, structural realities like food insecurity, lack of mobility, and mass incarceration, have fueled his aspirations to advance health and food equity in communities like his own. Following his graduate training, Alfred executed community-based research to promote food equity as a fellow in the UB Food Lab and has continued to fight food injustice by providing fresh produce, food, and meals to the underserved by working with Buffalo Go Green, a not-for-profit organization. As an Emerson fellow, Alfred looks forward to learning about successful policy strategies that can prevent food and health inequity, especially in Black communities and urban areas while amplifying voices directly impacted by hunger and poverty.

Tylah Harrison
30th Class, 2023-2024

Tylah Harrison, originally from Durham, North Carolina, graduated in May 2023 with a B.S.P.H. in Health Policy and Management and a minor in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Always interested in the intersection of public health and medicine, Tylah is passionate about addressing the social determinants of health in marginalized communities that are disproportionately burdened by chronic disease. As an undergraduate student, she explored interventions to address food insecurity among hypertensive adults as a research assistant, studied the politics of school nutrition and universal free meal campaigns in the U.S., and completed an internship with the CDC Division of Diabetes Translation. Tylah hopes to increase her knowledge about the national and community-level efforts currently underway to address poverty and food insecurity, and identify new avenues for healthcare professionals to be involved as advocates.

John Hoang
30th Class, 2023-2024

Born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, John continues to cultivate what he has learned from the legacies and infrastructures left by justice and equity pioneers of the past and present into accessible, approachable, and active actions for positive and transformative restitution as change. As a Bonner and McNair Scholar, John has worked within his community and the broader communities he serves by expanding community capacity concerning political action and civic engagement while focusing on identity, place, and policy. Previously, John has been a 2022 Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute fellow, improving his quantitative and qualitative skills toward public policy. John was also involved with the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, United States Department of Agriculture, New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, and more. John recently graduated from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government.

Maria Islam
30th Class, 2023-2024

A naturalized Texan, Maria Islam is a doctoral candidate in Public Policy and Political Economy at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her passion and research interests are in food systems policy, particularly anti-hunger and sustainability policies. Maria hopes to help reimagine current systems and make nutritious and delicious food accessible to all. In her free time, she participates in cultural and faith-based community activities. She also enjoys reading economic and political works so she can better contribute to conversations about social change.

Jeanie Kim
30th Class, 2023-2024

Originally from Santiago, Chile, Jeanie Kim is a recent graduate from Claremont McKenna College, where she majored in Environment, Economics, and Politics (EEP) and History, with a sequence in Gender and Sexuality. Over the past years, she has been focusing on the intersection between social and climate justice, especially throughout her work with The Roberts Environmental Center, The Farmlink Project, and Environment America. As an Emerson Fellow, she hopes to continue her work in creating a sustainable and equitable food system.

Stefano Mancini
30th Class, 2023-2024

Hailing from Trumbull, Connecticut, Stefano Mancini graduated with a degree in history from Lafayette College in 2022. While at Lafayette, Stefano led community engagement initiatives, coordinating hundreds of hours worth of service and educational experiences. He also immersed himself in food history through curating an exhibit on American food ephemera and writing his thesis on the relationship between culinary texts and gender during the seventeenth century in England. After graduation, Stefano served as an AmeriCorps VISTA in southwestern Connecticut, developing and implementing a client choice pantry based on his qualitative research to determine the needs of a diverse suburban and urban client base.

Avyan Mejdeen
30th Class, 2023-2024

Having grown up in two different parts of the world, Kurdistan (Iraq) and Moorhead, Minnesota, Avyan Mejdeen was immersed in two different cultures. The experience has shaped her into an advocate fighting for the human rights of women, girls, and minorities; equal access to basic needs; and the Kurdish struggle for independence. Avyan graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead in 2022 with majors in Political Science and Global Studies, with a minor in Interfaith Studies. Avyan’s interest in anti-poverty and anti-hunger legislation stems from her personal experiences. She was raised in a low-income immigrant household with her parents and five siblings. She turned her challenges into opportunities by helping to raise awareness and advocating for others like her family through policies. Avyan was a political fellow at the Borgen Project where she helped mobilize Members of Congress in Minnesota to support policies on food insecurity and low-income housing. She has supported human rights through various outlets internationally and domestically, including as a Fulbright Scholar in Kosovo. She was also the first Muslim Interfaith Fellow selected at her undergrad institution serving as a coordinator that initiated and guided difficult discussions on religious divides between various religious groups on campus and in the community.

Chas Nystrom
30th Class, 2023-2024

Having grown up in Richmond, Kentucky, Chas is a recent graduate from Centre College with a B.A. in Sociology and English. The highly prevalent Issues of poverty and food insecurity, which Chas witnessed in his own community in rural Kentucky, led him to focus on examining the structural roots of these problems as an undergraduate. In addition to studying sociology at Centre, Chas participated in the National Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty Program, where he worked at the Evolution Center in Atlanta to connect those experiencing houselessness to resources and housing, and he has also interned with local legal aid offices who provide assistance to those most vulnerable in the Appalachian region. As an Emerson Fellow, Chas is excited to grow and learn as an advocate for food justice.

Kenneth Palmer
30th Class, 2023-2024

A native Kansan from Lawrence, Kenneth currently lives in Denver, Colorado, continuing his work on food justice at We Don’t Waste, a food recovery organization that helps redirect food that would otherwise go uneaten to social service agencies. Kenneth graduated from Harvard University in History and Literature, during which time he studied the systems that govern injustice and resource deprivation along the lines of class and race. He has worked on a small farm in Perry, Kansas, and at a non-profit in the area dedicated to growing and distributed free food in his home town. Though he wrote his undergraduate thesis on Langston Hughes in Soviet Central Asia and racial agency, his interests today include plant identification, agricultural systems, and learning about the overlap and interactions between humans and the rest of the natural world. Kenneth hopes to meld his interests in food justice, agriculture, and appreciation of ecological systems into set of skills that can contribute to the work of ending poverty and creating a more livable, vibrant society.

Denise Ramos-Vega
30th Class, 2023-2024

Denise Ramos-Vega was born and raised in small, predominately Latinx community in Fullerton, California, and is daughter of working-class Mexican immigrants. Denise graduated from UCLA in June 2023 with degrees in Geography and Chicano/a/x Studies with a minor in Education. As someone who has been impacted by systemic inequity throughout her life, Denise aims to uplift those who the system leaves behind. As an undergraduate student, Denise focused much of her efforts on learning about the intersections between geography, structural racism, and food (in)security longing to alleviate the issue within our nation.

Kathryn Tzivanis
30th Class, 2023-2024

Driven by a profound dedication to addressing global injustices, Katie Tzivanis pursued a B.A. in Urban Studies at the New School. Katie's fervent interests lie at the confluence of public education reform and food security, with a particular emphasis on the detrimental effects of hunger on educational experiences and graduation rates. Throughout her undergraduate years, Katie directed her endeavors towards comprehensively assessing the extent of food insecurity at The New School while simultaneously devising initiatives aimed at eradicating hunger on campus. Notably, she spearheaded the establishment of various programs, including meal-sharing initiatives and community dinners. Guided by the empowering potential of education, Katie has wholeheartedly committed herself to the pursuit of an equitable public education system—one that provides every child, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status, or ability, with the necessary resources to break the generational cycles of emotional, intellectual, and financial poverty that currently plague our nation.

Tatiana Villegas
30th Class, 2023-2024

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Tatiana Villegas recently graduated from Whitman College with a BA in environmental sociology. Tatiana believes that healthy communities can only flourish when they acknowledge multiple perspectives. Incorporating this belief into her life, she has done research and work that discusses the connection between people and our lands. Specifically, exploring how humans can work to heal the land and thus heal ourselves.