Congratulations to Crystal Ellis, recipient of the Newman Civic Fellowship.
Crystal is a first year graduate student at Washington University, working towards a Master of Public Health at the Brown School. She combines research, policy change, service to community, and advocacy as a multi-tiered approach to implement social change and strive for racial justice. Currently, Crystal is a student researcher working with Dr. Jack Kirkland, an associate professor focused on the African-American family, as well as social and economic development. Crystal has held a range of leadership roles including serving as a Diversity Ambassador participant, president of the Cal Poly Pomona Black Advance Club, and executive co-outreach chair for the Black Student Union at California State Polytechnic University where she earned her Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology.
As a Master of Public Health student, Crystal’s goal is to help “local and national populations of color become self-sustaining, and reducing health barriers towards living a life full of wellness. I seek opportunities that strive to solve immediate and long-term needs of low income communities like my own, and protect important health services in predominantly African American communities. The transdisciplinary approach to solving these specific public health problems provides me with a wider scope of the issue, as well as utilizing multiple resources to collect, disseminate, and report valuable information to professionals and back to the community. By also working directly with policymakers towards implementing useful and needed resources for health equity in underfunded neighborhoods, I advocate for community voices to be heard.”
The Newman Civic Fellowship is a one-year national fellowship for community-committed college students from Campus Compact member institutions. Nominees are individuals who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country and abroad. Through the fellowship, Campus Compact provides a variety of learning and networking opportunities, including a national conference of Newman Civic Fellows in partnership with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The fellowship also provides students with access to exclusive scholarship and post-graduate opportunities.