Feeding America Equity Research Fellow

Feeding America is proud to welcome Dr. Yvette Blair-Lavallais as the Equity Research Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. Dr. Blair-Lavallais is an adjunct professor and cohort mentor in the Land, Food and Faith Doctor of Ministry program at Memphis Theological Seminary and she is an Ordained Elder in the Methodist tradition. As a food justice strategist and scholar whose research is at the intersection of faith, advocacy, and anti-racism in food access, Dr. Blair-Lavallais will work with our Research and Innovation Department (and other teams at Feeding America) to serve as a member of our Technical Advisory Group, consult on various projects throughout the organization, and conduct an original research project. To learn more about Dr. Blair-Lavallais, visit our Technical Advisory Group webpage.

The Feeding America Equity Research Fellow (formerly known as Equity Visiting Scholar) began in 2022. Dr. Angela Odoms-Young has served in this position from 2022-2024 supporting the Feeding America network on projects and research related to health equity, community-based equity initiatives and evaluation, and creating an equity self-assessment for the charitable food system.

The Equity Research Fellow

At Feeding America, we believe all people at all times should have access to the fundamental resources they need to reach their full potential. We know there are structural and systemic barriers that prevent this from happening. If we are to support actions for equitable access to healthy food and opportunity for all, then equity requires keeping the people most impacted by hunger at the center of our work and decision making. Feeding America's Equity Research Fellow Program provides a unique opportunity for select scholars in the social, economic, health/nutrition and behavioral sciences to pursue their equity related research and scholarship while being integrated into the research and work of the largest hunger relief organization in the United States.

The overarching goals of the program include to:

• Further center equity in FANO’s research work and advance/support the overall organization in its progress to be more equitable and anti-racist.
• Expand FANO's research capacity to examine social and structural contributors to inequities in food insecurity and understand the lived experience of network members, neighbors, and partners working within the charitable food system.
• Catalyze/engage a network of scholars, particularly scholars from BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and historically oppressed communities, in food insecurity research.

For more information on the other programs, see the document linked on the right.

If you have any questions, please email Erik Lovell, Sr. Manager, Research: [email protected]