Emerson Fellow
Sofia Charlot
28th Class, 2021-2022
Sofia is a first-generation Haitian-American from Miami, Florida. She studied Anthropology & Human Biology and African American Studies at Emory University, where she was a member of the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society, Residence Life, the Black Student Alliance, and the Emory Scholar's Program. Now, Sofia is a co-coordinator, farmhand, and member of a Black ecofeminist collective that champions sustainable food production as a praxis of racial, social, and environmental liberation. As part of the collective; Sofia supports mutual-aid, community building, and cultural preservation between black farmers who need labor and resources and young, black, and landless folks who love the earth. Sofia plans to pursue graduate training in epidemiology and sustainable food production in efforts to uproot oppressive food systems and practices that lead to higher rates of mortality and morbidity amongst BIPOC.
Field placement: Maryland Hunger Solutions
Baltimore, Maryland
Sofia conducted a qualitative analysis of racial equity in the anti-hunger movement at Maryland Hunger Solutions (MDHS) in Baltimore, Maryland. She connected with national domestic anti-hunger organizations and a cross-section of state and local anti-hunger advocacy organizations to scan, analyze, and report on racial equity programs and campaigns. Sofia’s work captured the material efforts to attain racial equity in the movement, people’s feelings and experiences concerning the topic, and the best practices to be shared in the domestic food security universe.
Policy placement: Alliance to End Hunger
Washington, D.C.
Sofia is advancing the "Hunger is a Racial Equity Issue" initiatives of the Alliance to End Hunger. She is creating additional educational materials, identifying new target audiences for this information, conducting presentations, and providing technical assistance to member organizations and Hunger Free Community (HFC) coalition partners. This work seeks to build the collective understanding of racial inequity in hunger, and the public will to end hunger.