Born and raised in Maine, Caroline graduated with Phi Betta Kappa and honors from Wellesley College with a degree in environmental studies and jazz & world music. Caroline’s work in food justice began in high school at Cultivating Community, a local nonprofit that taught her how to maintain an urban farm and to advocate for herself, her peers, and her food system. During her time at Wellesley, Caroline connected her passion for food justice with academic research in environmental law, public policy, and community identities. She brought these interests with her to work as an intern at DC Greens, where she supported community food access programs and researched policy options available to the District of Columbia to make food as medicine a reimbursable expense within Medicaid.
Field placement: Greater Cincinnati Regional Food Policy Council
Cincinnati, Ohio
Caroline’s field placement was with the Greater Cincinnati Food Policy Council, an organization working to advance a healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system for all within Greater Cincinnati's ten-county region through policy, systems, and environmental change. As the Council’s Healthy Food in Healthcare fellow, Caroline conducted academic research and stakeholder interviews to understand the goals, priorities, and capacity of regional healthcare institutions in promoting population health through food system interventions. In collaboration with her field site partner, Alexa Angelo, Caroline wrote a report to share her research findings – including best practices and recommendations for future collaborative interventions – with regional healthcare and food justice stakeholders.
Policy placement: The Brookings Institution
Washington, D.C.
Caroline supported a collaborative project between researchers at the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program and Child Trends. The project examines the determinants of young workers' wage trajectories, with specific emphasis on the experiences of those who experienced disadvantage as youth. Caroline reviewed related literature to inform team decisions on variable selection and operationalization. In response to COVID-19, Caroline provided research support to teams across the Metropolitan Policy Program, contributing to articles on topics like Unemployment Insurance and the challenges faced by working parents during the pandemic.