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.
Field placement: Just Harvest
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Tylah's work at Just Harvest is focused on examining the many barriers to accessing SNAP benefits that people across the state are currently facing, and crafting recommendations for improvement. Her goal is to highlight the perspectives of people with lived experiences with SNAP through a survey, focus groups, and interviews.
Policy placement: Center for Law and Social Policy
Washington, D.C.
At the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Tylah Harrison is working with the Income and Work Supports team to promote accurate, anti-racist information about SNAP and other public benefits programs through various writing projects. She is also working on a series of deliverables with CLASP's Community Partnership Group—a collective of advocates with lived experience with poverty and public benefits—to highlight their work and the importance of non-transactional co-creation in anti-poverty spaces.