Education Works: Strengthening Vocational Education and Training in Mississippi’s TANF Program

Born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut, Amarillys graduated from Pomona College in 2011 with a degree in public policy analysis.  Amarillys served with AmeriCorps through Public Allies Connecticut, where she worked with homeless service providers to coordinate the 2012 Point in Time census of the city's homeless population. She also organized media campaigns promoting healthy behavior among the city’s youth with the Healthy Teen Hartford Coalition, and co-created Yeah! Hartford!, a youth development program, in response to community-identified needs.  She has also researched funding opportunities for a green jobs program and developed an online toolkit for the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals in the Dominican Republic. Amarillys served as a 2010 Public Policy and International Affairs Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.