Since coming to NAU I have served on the steering committee for the Sustainable Communities (SUS) Graduate Program. Over the years, I have had the pleasure to advise several students during their thesis work. This past year, Reilly Caldwell successfully defended her thesis and graduated.
Reilly took my political ecology class in 2021 and found the angle appropriate for her research. She wanted to focus on food access and ended up writing an interesting final paper for the class. Her research interest emerged, in part, through her work with the Community University Public Inquiry, a unique program started in SUS that creates pods that have undergraduates working on projects in conjunction with community partners. SUS students, including Reilly, serve as facilitators for the pods. Reilly and the undergraduates in the pod focused on rural food systems. Through that work, she traveled to western Arizona and saw first-hand the challenges people faced regarding food access.
In her research, she used interviews and a focus group to better understand what people in Mojave County faced as they tried to secure food. Many rely on food boxes. Transportation costs in this rural, sparsely populated area, with few grocery stores, creates real burden for people. Reilly diagnosed the primary causes leading to food insecurity and proposed compelling interventions based on her research and personal experience working with people in this region.
Having graduated and moved forward after completing her degree, Reilly is currently teaching in the Food Systems Program at Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. This opportunity provides Reilly an opportunity to focus on teaching and to continue to hone her interests moving forward. I really enjoyed working with Reilly – she was always so kind and easy to work with. I look forward to seeing where her career takes her!
(Photo: SUS Director Peter Friederici with Reilly at her thesis defense, May 4 (may the 4th be with you…))
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