Elise is a macro practice social worker, who seeks to lend her assets to communities in search of innovative. She is graduating from Boston College’s School of Social Work, in May 2017, where her Master’s studies have focused on Social Innovation and Leadership. Her work focuses on strengthening communities through grassroots driven food security projects. This work has taken her from farms and gardens to food pantries and from farmers markets to non-profit grocery stores. In 2015, she won the Indy Food Councils Food Access Award to her work piloting Fresh Bucks Indy. She is excited to blend these on the ground experiences with a professional education to bring about sustainable solutions through program, community, and policy development.
What makes you come alive? What continues to fuel your vision and actions?
The conversations that happen over a meal. Breaking bread with someone inevitably leads to learning something new about them. The conversations that happen over dinner grow into relationships. The ideas that are said over lunch grow into solutions. This simple, human act, of eating is where I think the real work is done. And whenever I can share food that brings someone joy, it reminds me why I do what I do.