Access to the Federal Food Stamp Program: An In-Depth Analysis of New York City’s Immigrant Communities, Estimates of Unmet Need and Barriers to Access

Beth graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 2005 with a degree in Social Studies and a certificate in Health Policy.  Her senior thesis examined how personal responsibility affects obesity policy in the United States. While interning at the Institute of Medicine, Beth collaborated on a paper published in the Annual Review of Public Health.  In her coursework and internships, she has studied issues of social justice, civic engagement, and health policy.  Beth’s activities in college included teaching civics classes in Roxbury, Massachusetts, lobbying for increased funding for HIV/AIDS treatment, and directing a mentoring program for teenage boys in transitional homes.

Before the Fellowship, Almas worked with the Kansas State Legislature and the state’s Child Protective Services agency developing state policy and legislation on the intersection between child maltreatment and domestic violence.  In 2003, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she worked with the European Commission of Technical Assistance and a legal service organization for Palestinian women, the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling.  As an undergraduate, Almas studied at Birzeit University in the West Bank, Palestinian Occupied Territories and worked for a micro-finance organization in Bangalore, India.  A native of Wichita, Kansas, Almas graduated with her BA with honors from the University of Kansas and earned her MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Economic Development.