“I would say I focus on the forest and not the trees.”
Monica problem-solves with her students. “I'm looking at critiquing the problem theoretically but also how I want to act with it—do I want to partner with groups? Are there different funding opportunities? If we can get direct support to programs this is something we explore as a teacher-student relationship, which sometimes leads to writing commentaries. Our thought pieces are really recommendations of how we can better support communities.” She shares, “Being more grounded in my work and how I approach it—it's been a constant evolution; I've always been a community activist in some way. I really worked a lot in Women's Health; I was our board
chair for three or four years for Georgians for a Healthy Future, which has long advocated for expanded healthcare access for Georgia residents. I have helped to get lactation pods at the airport; there are a lot of different projects I’ve done to support the community, so my interest now is helping with crisis communication. And my lens is that I believe that some communities are in a constant state of crisis, and the way we do that work is probably insufficient, that we should make sure that people are still safe. That's really the number one thing we can do to make sure that we restore trust— get people to a place of sustainability, and even adapt and partner with us for long-term social change.”
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