Community Fellows And Projects - 2014-2015

Jenny Alpert City of Bethlehem, Department of Community and Economic Development Jenny’s Community Fellowship involved collecting, analyzing and mapping data about the City’s housing stock and housing trends. This information helped city staff assess various housing programs and set goals for the future. Additionally, Jenny researched potential partnerships, similar communities and additional funding sources that could assist with the City’s objectives.	Elena DeSantis Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley (PNLV) is a community development organization committed to the success of children from cradle to career. Elena managed the organization’s expansion into Bethlehem. This required collecting and analyzing data on Bethlehem’s education, safety, economy, and health, and conducting community meetings to share this data and get residents’ feedback.
Marissa Galante St. Luke’s University Health Network, Community Health Department Marissa worked on collecting and analyzing data for the 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) required under the Affordable Care Act. She gathered primary and secondary data for the study, led community focus groups, and developed surveys. She assisted in writing the final report, creating trend diagrams and tracking and summarizing demographic and health disparity statistics for the six hospitals in the St. Luke’s network.	Julissa Lopez Bethlehem Area School District Julissa’s Community Fellowship was at Donegan Elementary School. She worked on the “Youth Succeeding in Schools” program, tracking student attendance, and with family social services to determine whether such support helped increase school attendance. Julissa also worked on school-wide vision initiatives, ensuring that every student in need of a pair of glasses received one, and she facilitated two programs that promoted literacy in the neighborhood.
Brooke Kohler Nurture Nature Center Brooke was also at the Nurture Nature Center (NNC), supporting the organization’s efforts to raise awareness of local environmental risk. Brooke helped with program development, event coordination and promotion, community engagement, environmental educational outreach, and grant-writing and research, and oversaw NNC volunteers and interns. In addition, she worked on a community needs assessment, which sought to understand environmental concerns and awareness in the Easton community.	Cristiano Lima Muhlenberg College, Institute of Public Opinion Cristiano worked with the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, serving as a research assistant to Professor Christopher Borick. At the Institute, he developed polling instruments, ran statistical analyses, wrote data-specific opinion pieces, and synthesized study results into briefs used for public outreach and media engagement. His projects included the Lehigh Valley quality of life survey, a regional health survey, and an expansive national survey on attitudes toward climate change.
Ellie McGuire Bethlehem Area School District Ellie focused her Community Fellowship on the school district’s Climate and Sustainability Commitment to improve environmental sustainability in district operations and implement more sustainability-oriented curricula. She managed a district-wide curriculum inventory of existing sustainability-oriented curricula to identify gaps and potential areas for improvement.