To Serve Better

Harvard University doctoral candidate Jordan Kennedy studies the engineering marvels that beavers create in her home state of Montana.

Harvard University professor Daniel D’Oca is helping St. Louis residents become the city’s best asset for fighting inequality.

Harvard University graduate student Kristin Oberiano is writing a history of Guam inclusive of all who call it home.

Harvard University doctoral candidate Andy Cohen survived getting stuck in a blizzard, and is a better engineer because of it.

Sarah Lockridge-Steckel is co-founder and CEO of The Collective, a nonprofit organization that provides pathways to opportunities for young adults through partnerships with education institutions and employers in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

Clint Smith is a writer and teacher whose collection of poetry, “Counting Descent,” was published in 2016. He is currently working on a doctoral dissertation exploring how people sentenced as juveniles to life without parole make meaning of education while incarcerated.

Jim Langford is the president of the Georgia Prevention Project, the MillionMile Greenway, and the Coosawattee Foundation. For the past decade he has been raising awareness about the rising drug epidemic in his state.

Alexis Wheeler founded the Harvard Club of Seattle Crimson Achievement Program (CAP) to help illuminate the path to college for high-potential high school students from Western Washington school districts that serve predominantly low-income populations.

Madelyn Petersen explored her passions for business and human rights and community lawyering at Harvard Law School. She is currently interning with the Corporate Accountability Lab in Chicago before starting a clerkship with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Erica Mosca founded Leaders in Training (LIT) in 2012, an organization that helps prospective first-generation college students from East Las Vegas high schools finish their degrees and work toward becoming leaders in their home state. She is herself a first-generation college graduate and a social justice advocate.

Harvard University staff member Marnie Gelbart is the director of programs for the Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd) at Harvard Medical School, and is a co-principal investigator of Building Awareness, Respect, and Confidence through Genetics (ARC), a five-year NIH-funded project through which pgEd is developing curricula on identity and inclusion working with teachers in urban Massachusetts and rural South Dakota communities.

Anne Sung is a native of Houston and a graduate of the city’s public schools. Since 2016 she has served as a trustee of the Houston Independent School District. She is also a public school educator, advocate, and strategist.

Theresa Reno-Weber is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a former lieutenant. She deployed to the Persian Gulf and served as a sea marshal on the first U.S.C.G. cutter to circumnavigate the world. Today, she is president and CEO of Metro United Way in Louisville, Kentucky.

Emily Broad Leib is an assistant clinical professor of law, director of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and deputy director of the Harvard Law School Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. As founder of the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, Broad Leib launched the first law school clinic in the nation devoted to providing clients with legal and policy solutions to address the health, economic, and environmental challenges facing our food system.

Rye Barcott is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran living in North Carolina. He is the co-founder and CEO of With Honor, a group that aims to bridge partisanship in U.S. politics by supporting veterans running for office.

Brickson Diamond is the co-founder of Blackhouse, a foundation that helps black writers, producers, directors, and executives gain a better foothold in the film and television industries.

Benet Magnuson is a native Kansan and the executive director of Kansas Appleseed. His career has been dedicated to nonprofit advocacy on behalf of impoverished and excluded communities.

Izzy Goodchild-Michelman is a South Carolina native who spent six weeks working for Hub City Urban Farm in Spartanburg, S.C., before she started at Harvard. She helped write grants and revamped the educational Seed to Table curriculum that’s used with elementary and middle school students.