I hold a B.A. from Duke University in in Public Policy Studies. I am presently serving as a Hart Fellow and a Hometown Fellow in Lead for America’s inaugural cohort, and I will be working with the Southwestern Regional Day Report Center to administer the FRESH START program in Logan County, West Virginia, and support roles in the Boone County office. My interest in criminal justice reform, health care policy, and economic justice began in high school with my work at a local in-patient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility for women and families. There, I began to see how poverty, gender, race, and access to medical care intersect to limit the opportunities of society’s most vulnerable members. I continued to work directly with clients through a Family Treatment Court in San Francisco, CA, but after completing extensive academic study of the opioid epidemic, and drug policy more broadly, I felt compelled to serve at the heart of the issue. I found my way to West Virginia’s southern coalfields in 2017, and as I continued to grapple with the region’s economic fragility and complicated history, I fell in love with the community that hosted me for this transformative summer. I returned to work with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy the following summer, and as I honed my analytical and technical skills, I remained connected to members of the community which had both challenged and welcomed me. I hope to bring a deep humility to public service, one informed both by my experiences working directly with community members as well as the history of the community I serve.