Leslie Rios
27th Class, 2020-2021

Born in Wisconsin and raised in Hidalgo, Texas, Leslie graduated from St. Edward’s University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in Economics, becoming a Presidential Award Receipt and a McNair Scholar in the process. Leslie first became interested in food justice when she took a course surrounding where our food comes from, and through the course, traveled to Costa Rica to learn about organic farming and unfair farm-worker practices. During her time at St. Edward’s, Leslie also served as Student Government President and interned at the Texas Capitol during the 86th Legislative Session as a policy aide, where she became interested in creating equitable policy change. Leslie has also participated in three service break experiences in the U.S and abroad, which reaffirmed her passion for social justice and quickly became interested in issues revolving around poverty.

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Dan Myers
10th Class, 2019-2021

Dan Myers, a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduated from the University of Denver in 2016 with a BA in International Studies. As an undergraduate researcher, Dan focused on formal and informal governance systems surrounding agricultural resources in East Africa. He received a Cherrington Global Scholars placement with SIT Study Abroad in Madagascar, where his capstone project centered on the socioeconomic and environmental factors underlying the erosion of norms and institutions underpinning the cattle economies of the Haute Matsiatra and Ihorombe regions. Dan also received a Partners in Scholarship grant to study hyperlocal variations in land tenure systems near Mzuzu, Malawi ahead of national land reform legislation. After graduation, Dan worked on Healthcare Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Healthcare Initiative, where he studied the role of state and national community benefit law in shaping American nonprofits hospitals' efforts to boost food security and reduce diet-related disease in their service areas. Most recently, Dan worked on the facilitation and mediation of planning processes and disputes involving water supplies, forest management, and the governance of public lands in Colorado and New Mexico with Peak Facilitation Group.

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