Our Team
At Taproot, our associates and collaborators provide rich expertise in varying industries and experiences. We connect through our collective set of values rooted in social justice, environmental sustainability, and racial equity. Our team is dedicated to challenging the status quo and cultivating new, equitable approaches to building communities and economies.
Susan is the Lead Consultant on all Taproot Projects. Read more about Susan in her founder bio.
Taproot Associates
Hannah joined Taproot in 2020 while she was attending the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University pursuing a Master's in Public Health (MPH) with a concentration in Global Health and an emphasis in Community Health Development. She also holds a B.S in Food Science and Nutrition from Clemson University (2019). Hannah was drawn to Taproot, as it was a way to become more involved in community development across a variety of disciplines where she could help create tangible impacts. In her role at Taproot, she supports client and partner communications, community engagement, grant writing, fundraising strategies, and program organization. Hannah has also worked for CARE USA’s Crisis Response Campaign where she engaged in global non-profit fundraising strategies and created content for stakeholder communications.
Hannah completed her master’s thesis focused on COVID-19 health disparities in communities of color. This process allowed her to work closely with various non-profit, community-based, and faith-based organizations across the United States and structure their recommendations into an advocacy tool to help amplify their voices. Hannah is devoted to social advocacy, particularly racial and gender equity and environmental justice. She is passionate about the intersection of visual arts and public health, and their role in fostering and sustaining community resilience.
Taproot Collaborators
Lauren is a PhD candidate in the Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Public Management and Policy program specializing in urban policy. She earned an MPH in Community Health and Prevention from Drexel University in 2013 and a B.S in biology from Oregon State University in 2011. Her research interests include critical urbanism, Black foodways, local food systems, sustainable development, and child and family health. Her methodological interests include comparative case studies, factor analysis, program evaluation, and data visualization. She is a mixed methods researcher who enjoys field research, centralizes inclusivity and equity in her work, and seeks to build bridges that support communication and power shifting between marginalized communities and institutional power actors. Her dissertation research explores how segregation is maintained within cities and how Black-led urban farms function as community leaders that resist the racialized violence created by it.