Park headshot

Emerson Fellow

Rebekah Park

10th Class, 2003-2004

Rebekah graduated cum laude and with honors from Northwestern University in 2002, where she received the Jane S. Mansbridge Scholar Activist Award by the NU Women Faculty for her leadership in activist organizations and academic research grants.  Rebekah worked extensively on intersecting issues related to drug users, HIV/AIDS, and women.  Her senior thesis, supported by the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Public Health, was used to improve the longest needle exchange study in the U.S.  As a 2002-03 Fulbright Scholar in Amsterdam, she conducted research on long-term older heroin users and received an advanced Master of Science degree in Medical Anthropology.  She recently published an article on heroin addiction in Medische Antropologie journal of the Netherlands.

Field placement: Washington Community Action Network

Seattle, Washington

Rebekah served as the anti-hunger organizer for WCA. Through outreach, interviews, and advocacy, Rebekah gained first hand knowledge on problems related to hunger and poverty, and empowered community members to join the anti-hunger movement.

Policy placement: Poverty & Race Research Action Council

Washington, D.C.

Rebekah worked to organize the third National Conference on Assisted Regional Housing Mobility and did outreach for three PRRAC reports focusing on classroom mobility, Civil Rights teaching methods, and the relationship between segregation and evictions, respectively.  She also helped to develop the PRRAC website and providing research assistance for several ongoing projects including: Domestic Violence and Housing, and The Baltimore Project.

Publications