Emerson Fellow
Maggie You Ming Tsai
24th Class, 2017-2018
Born in Taiwan, Maggie You Ming grew up in Fremont, CA, and graduated from New York University in 2015 with a degree in nutrition and food studies with a concentration in dietetics and a minor in molecular and cell biology. As an undergraduate, she served as a student leader for a community garden on campus and organized with a coalition of environmental and social justice student groups. She also briefly studied agriculture, nutrition assistance policy, and food culture in Puerto Rico. Maggie You Ming holds a Master’s degree in Nutrition from the University of Rhode Island, where she worked as a research assistant on an intervention to improve nutrition environments in home-based child care, completed and presented a thesis on diet quality and acculturation in early child care education settings, and mentored several bright and hardworking undergraduate students.
Field placement: The Reinvestment Fund
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Maggie You Ming completed her field work at Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based federally-certified community development financial institution that integrates data, policy, and strategic investments to improve quality of life in low-income neighborhoods. She interviewed childcare providers, sponsors, and state agencies to identify best-practices for technical assistance and meal procurement in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program in New Jersey. She contributed her findings in a report on barriers and facilitators to successful meal procurement in these programs. In addition, Maggie You Ming also researched and interviewed stakeholders to identify promising food access initiatives in rural and Indian Country communities to guide the development of a targeted financial assistance program.
Policy placement: New America Foundation
Washington, DC
As a member of the Family Centered Social Policy Team, Maggie You Ming supported several projects related to financial inclusion and social policy. She conducted research for a report on financial inclusion and supported the dissemination of a mapping tool to highlight community investment and disinvestment in Chicago. She also conducted research on the resilience of nontraditional families.
Hunger Free Community Report
"Beyond the Grocery Gap: Strategies to Support Rural and Indian Country Communities through the Healthy Food Financing Initiative" is an environmental scan of healthy food access projects in Indian Country and rural communities. The report offers recommendations to guide the development of targeted financial assistance to support these projects.