Class of 2011 Alum Making an Impact in Rhode Island and Beyond

“My work in politics, public health, and community activism are not disconnected,” explained Jackie. ”I’m running for City Council because we need politicians who will fight for our communities. And at Brown, I’m passionate about using research to create real-world change in our communities.”

Jackie’s interest in public health took an unexpected journey — from Wisconsin to India.

“I went to the University of Wisconsin and got degrees in Hindi language and global health,” recalled Jackie. “I was taking a sociology class, which had a requirement to talk with a professor to understand how sociology applied to other fields. As I walked in the door, this professor asked me if I wanted to live in India for a year. I said I did, and became a Hindi major the next week."  

In India, Jackie was taking public health classes and working with a local non-governmental organization (NGO) doing diarrheal disease prevention education.

“Diarrheal disease was the number one killer of children younger than five in Varanasi, which was where I was living,” said Jackie. “This NGO that I was volunteering for trained local women in the villages to perform various kinds of healthcare interventions and deliveries, from maternal health exams to diarrheal disease prevention.”

After India, and graduation, Jackie returned to the United States and spent two years on the West Coast in the AmeriCorps.

“My first year was with the National Civilian Community Corps,” said Jackie. “We moved every two to three months to do forest fire prevention work and infrastructure building. I was also part of the trail crew doing invasive species removal and building rain diversions. After that, I did three months in Northern Washington building houses for Habitat for Humanity. In the end, we worked in Northern California, Southern California, Northern Washington, and Montana.”

Jackie’s second year with AmeriCorps was spent in Santa Fe doing HIV and Hep C testing, syringe exchange, and NARCAN distribution.

“So, my days alternated between going to drop-in homeless or youth shelters in Santa Fe or going out in a van to rural northern New Mexico to do needle exchanges and NARCAN distribution,” recalled Jackie. “The towns were no more than a series of trailer parks without running water or electricity, and I really fell in love with harm reduction work.”

Jackie believes our health policies and practices towards drug use need to center on harm reduction and the voices of people with lived experience.

“Harm reduction is an ideology about meeting people where they're at,” explained Jackie. “It’s never about forcing people to stop using drugs or thinking about incarceration, but rather providing people with agency.”

About the same time, Jackie was applying for a master’s in public health and connected with a professor at Brown who was a leader in harm reduction.

“Brandon Marshall was doing incredible work and I reached out to him,” recalled Jackie. “I’ve gone from his student research assistant to his program director over the course of 10 years. When I was a master’s student, I authored the first qualitative paper on fentanyl test strips in the country. These test strips allow people using drugs to see if there's fentanyl in their drug supply. They’ve been used in Canada and Europe before the U.S., and my paper was cited by the Biden administration in its guidance on harm reduction and overdose prevention.”

Jackie loves working as a program director and the team at the People, Place and Health Collective.

“I have eight direct reports,” said Jackie. “Six are in Providence and two are in Massachusetts doing some work throughout rural New England. They’re trying to understand the connections of HIV, hepatitis C, overdose, and drug use. I still go on site and meet with participants. I really cherish the relationships and the ways that we get to work with people, as well as the policy impacts we've had on the state and on the U.S.”

Jackie is working at the intersection of high-caliber academics, policy relevance, and community orientation.

“We’ve also created various kinds of statistical models that essentially create ‘Sims’ models,” said Jackie. “Like the Sims game, we’ve created models to hypothetically increase the amount of Naloxone that's distributed in a given community to see how much we can reduce overdose. I've been working with jurisdictions like Missouri, Nevada, and New York City to develop their own models specific to their context, so they can make decisions to change how they deliver interventions to reduce the most overdose or get people on medications for opioid use disorder.

While there is much work to be done, Jackie is hopeful in the progress they’ve seen.

“In Rhode Island, drug overdoses have gone down by 33 percent over the last few years,” said Jackie. “I think that a lot of that goes to the work of our community partners, who are doing the direct work with participants. We've also been supporting them every single step of the way. I'm really encouraged by the work of the Overdose Prevention Center. They've reversed hundreds of overdoses and have not needed emergency support. It’s amazing!”

Jackie’s work in public health has also informed their decision to get involved with local government in Rhode Island.

“I’m running for City Council in Ward 5, and the primary is September 9,” said Jackie. “Two of my key issues are housing and affordability. Providence is the most expensive city per median income in the country. There is a massive housing crisis here, and a majority of people are rent burdened and paying more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing and utilities. So, I'm fighting for affordable housing, as well as investments in our public education system and our public transportation infrastructure.”

Jackie has already received a number of local and national endorsements.

“I’ve been endorsed by ‘Run for Something,’ which is a national organization that supports young progressives running for office,” said Jackie. “I hope to receive an endorsement from the 314 Action Fund, which focuses on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office. I'll also be getting an endorsement from the Victory Fund, which endorses LGBTQ candidates. If I were to win, I would be the first openly trans person elected to office in Rhode Island.”