In the third grade, Jamila Michener, Government, sent a letter to then New York City mayor David Dinkins asking him what she could do to help her Brooklyn neighborhood. It wasn’t until graduate school, after having long forgotten about the letter, that Michener’s mother showed her a copy of the letter, along with a response from Dinkins’ office.
“My mom always said that this preoccupation I had with race and poverty and politics started a long time ago,” says Michener. “Apparently this is what I was destined to do.” It’s no surprise then that Michener spends her time researching economic and racial inequality and how it affects people’s engagement with the political system.
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