Assisting Marginalized Communities: Alum Collects Data to Track Hunger in Ohio

Staci Vaughan

Ohio University alum Staci Vaughan ’15M focused on quantitative work for her graduate courses, and she continues to work with data in her current position—with an aim to help marginalized communities.

Vaughan works in impoverished communities as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank for a year of service.

She earned her master’s degree in Sociology in 2015 from the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University.

“This program and faculty helped me develop my critical thinking, writing and research skills. I am a more informed leader working alongside and assisting marginalized communities,” she said.

Tracking Hunger in Ohio

“What I enjoy most about my position is working with the volunteers at each agency and their clients. It has been a great experience to be able to work out in the field and also in the office alongside the data we collect.

“At the Food Bank, I train agencies on computers and help set up their internet connection. Then, I train them on an online client-intake system. From this, my site and I are able to collect data and track hunger in Ohio,” she said.

“With this data I write multiple reports each month, code the data on SQL, geocode it to assist in grant writing, and pass the stats to my supervisors who lobby for anti-hunger legislation in Columbus, OH, and Washington, D.C.”