Meet unBox!
Our Leadership Team
Isabelle Foster
Co-Lead
ISABELLE FOSTER (she/her) graduated from Stanford in 2018 (BA) and 2019 (MA). At Stanford, Isabelle studied Public Policy and International Policy and was particularly interested in public sector innovation, impact investing, and food systems. Prior to the outbreak of COVID, she was doing a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Paraguay, where she was helping the government with the National Innovation Strategy. Isabelle feels extremely grateful that after coming back to the US, she was able to meet (virtually!) Charlie and co-create unBox together! It has been an inspiring and impactful opportunity to work with the entire team, our community partners, and our advisors on such an important topic. Isabelle is eager to continue working with the group to think big picture, push the needle, and consider how systems change can occur.
Charlie Hoffs
Co-Lead
CHARLIE HOFFS (she/her) believes we can end hunger by fueling government programs that support basic needs. Ensuring every American access to healthy, affordable food involves building resiliency and transparency into the systems that support us. As a rising junior in Chemical Engineering at Stanford (‘22), she studies the interconnectivity of biological systems. In April 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and historic rates of food insecurity, she leveraged her passions for food and social justice to explore “systems thinking” beyond the lab. She and Isabelle Foster started unBox, and Charlie is enduringly awed, humbled, and grateful to continue working with Isabelle and this inspiring team.
IG: @chuckhoffs
Angelina Polselli
Co-Lead
ANGELINA POLSELLI (she/her) is a rising senior at University of San Francisco (21’), with a major in Politics and a minor in Public Service & Community Engagement. Throughout her life, Angelina has been fascinated about the raw political power that we all possess on an individual level and how we choose to leverage that power. Throughout her time at USF, she has studied the many ways ordinary people can organize to result in long lasting political change. Specifically, she has been passionate about the ways communities (online and off) come together to provide basic needs and support for each other. In March 2020, as COVID-19 expanded and government assistance stalled, the need for community support became a necessity—specifically for food. By April 2020, Angelina joined the dynamic and always inspiring team of unBox to help address the growing food insecurity in communities and brainstorm ways to make long lasting change to the food system. Making change is never easy, but Angelina is a firm believer that with enough passion, hardwork and collaboration anything is possible.
IG: @2kangie
Twitter: @2kangie
Facebook: Angelina Polselli
Our Fellows
Karen I. Amaya Aguirre
KAREN I. AMAYA AGUIRRE (she/her) is a junior at the University of San Francisco (‘22), majoring in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry. She was born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, then decided to pursue her college education in the United States. Throughout her life, she has demonstrated an immense passion for volunteer and service by getting involved in public hospitals in Mexico, TECHO (an organization dedicated to building houses for the underprivileged communities), fundraisers and recently, she founded a campaign to fight hunger in her home state. Her experience as a latino international student has been eye opening, but more importantly it inspired her to become an activist for social injustice. Since september of 2019 she has been an intern at UCSF Medical Center for neurology research where she runs sessions and collects data focusing on the development of cognitive abilities in children. In the future, Karen hopes to attend medical school and become a successful surgeon. In June 2020, she joined the inspiring unBox team to fight food insecurity in the United States. Karen believes that those who think they can change the world, are the ones who are going to change it.
IG: @karenamaya
Twitter: @karenamayaag
Facebook: Karen Amaya
Julia Cesana
JULIA CESANA (she/her) is a junior at the University of San Francisco studying Communications and Political Science. She is passionate about the intersection of technology and what it means to be socially responsible. As our world continues to develop and innovate, she believes that technology will only garner more power within the public sphere. Because of this, she believes that technology often acts as a gatekeeper for essential information and services for marginalized communities, an since joining unBox, she has worked on increasing digital literacy and demystifying the online grocery shopping experience to vulnerable populations. Julia hopes to continue becoming an ally to food insecure communities by supporting them through resources driven by strong policy and data insights.
Akash Gupta
AKASH GUPTA (he/him) is a rising senior at The Potomac School in Mclean, VA. Last summer, he travelled to rural China with Stanford’s Rural Education Action Program to track family migration patterns, as part of a larger goal of enhancing rural Chinese children’s educational outputs. On this trip, Akash really enjoyed applying the data analysis and research skills he was learning in school to help improve a real world problem. This summer, he joined unBox and continued enhancing his data analysis skills to help improve food accessibility, a growing problem during COVID. Akash’s research combines two areas of interest of food accessibility and racial equality as he focuses on the racial inequities in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He is grateful to be a part of unBox and is excited to see the change they can make in the future.
Jessica Lawson
JESSICA LAWSON (she/her) is a Senior at Stanford University, majoring in Human Biology and minoring in Creative Writing. Growing up in rural New York, she developed a love for farming and being outdoors. Throughout her time at Stanford, she has studied sustainable food systems, disease prevention, and regenerative agriculture. She believes accessibility to nutritious food is critical in supporting healthy communities and is excited to have the opportunity to support these beliefs as a member of the unBox team. Jessica is eager to continue working to make online SNAP benefits more accessible, especially as our country continues to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic.
IG: @ _jlawson
Florencia Romero Lescano
Florencia Romero Lescano (she/her) is a current senior Spanish translation student at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. She is 28 years old and finds volunteering for Unbox an excellent opportunity to gain experience in what she likes the most, to translate. Although reading, being in contact with nature, and designing are also among her favorite activities. Florencia joined UnBox thanks to Code for San José back in April 2021. So far, she is very excited to have joined a group of incredible young persons full of ideas and committed to a highly humanitarian cause such as ending hunger on a national scale. Let’s join forces; the more we are, the better!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florenciaromles /
Jessie Moore
JESSIE MOORE (she/her) believes that access to food is a basic human right. As a recent graduate from the Stanford School of Medicine’s masters program in Community Health and Prevention Research, Jessie is passionate about utilizing food as preventative medicine. Jessie is a native Texan and enjoys cooking, playing ultimate frisbee, and biking through San Francisco. In response to COVID-19, Jessie teamed up with local Bay Area school districts to better assess the impact of the crisis on local families. She is passionate about using systematic change to ensure one of our most vulnerable populations: children have access to healthy, unapologetically delicious food. Currently, Jessie is enthusiastic about continuing her work in child nutrition as part of the incredible unBox team.
Deeya Viradia
DEEYA VIRADIA is a sophomore at The Harker School. According to the World Food Programme, 135 million suffer from acute hunger due to climate change and economic downturns. The COVID-19 pandemic has doubled that number, putting an additional 130 million people at risk of suffering acute hunger. Deeya joined unBox via Code for San Jose to solve community issues using tech. Working at unBox has helped her understand the importances of teamwork and the power of technology to help and reach masses. Individually, we are one drop, together we are an ocean!
Larissa Bersh
LARISSA BERSH (she/her) is a senior at Stanford (’22) majoring in psychology with minors in English literature and political science (international relations). Through her role as co-president of Stanford Food Recovery and as a member of Stanford’s Basic Needs Coalition, Larissa has continued to develop her passion for food security and the mitigation of food waste. She joined unBox to better understand the local impacts of health policy, and to contribute towards research uncovering its inequities.
Akshay Gupta
AKSHAY GUPTA (he/him) is a freshman at Stanford. He has had deep interest in tackling food insecurity since high school, and has really enjoyed the opportunity to work at the intersection of data analysis, public policy and food insecurity with unBox. Currently, he serves as the lead for unBox’s collaboration with World Central Kitchen.
Christopher LeBoa
CHRISTOPHER LEBOA (he/him/his) works for the Stanford Epidemiology Department on the human health impacts of governmental policies and environmental change. He graduated Stanford in 2019 with a B.S. in human biology and in 2020 with an M.S. in Epidemiology. He grew up working with his family for the Alameda County Community Food Bank and at Stanford helped run Stanford Food Recovery, an organization that works to gather and redistribute excess food from across the Stanford Campus. He is excited to help utilize data insights to inform more equitable policy with the unBox team and to continue learning alongside its members.
facebook : Chris Leboa
Instagram: @chrisleboa
Twitter: @leboachris
Ilinca Popescu
ILINCA POPESCU (She/Her) is a Junior at Stanford University in the Earth Systems department with a concentration in Land Systems Science, interested in understanding sustainable land management in an interdisciplinary setting. Surrounded by rural spaces in Mid-Missouri, she quickly found a love for being outside and in the dirt, leading her to volunteer with local urban farms that support food pantries for surrounding communities. During her time working to combat food insecurity, Ilinca was inspired to combine her love of Earth Sciences with resource accessibility in an academic and nonprofit setting, utilizing mapping techniques and data analytics to compile and visualize trends in accessible ways for both policymakers and community members alike. She is excited to continue working with the unBox team, and sees great potential in their mission to provide clarity and solutions to food inequity in response to the pandemic’s impact on the food system.
Facebook: Ilinca Popescu
Instagram: @i1inca
Sarah Wilkinson
SARAH WILKINSON (she/her) is a junior at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences studying Mechanical Engineering. She is interested in the interconnectivity between humans and nature, knowing that we have the capacity to live in greater harmony with the planet. Growing up on Guam, she experienced the importance of collaborating with nature and the detrimental consequences of its exploitation; she also witnessed the alarming rates of food insecurity in the American territory. This inspired her current efforts to increase the inclusivity of territories in food security initiatives in America. Looking forward, she is keen on efforts to reduce and redirect food waste (30-40% of the food supply in America!, USDA) toward a more just reality of food security. Service has always been important to Sarah, and her experience includes leading the largest environmental youth group on Guam, researching coral reef bleaching, and implementing a solar microgrid in Otubet, Uganda as a dedicated member of Columbia University Engineers Without Borders. She is excited and humbled to be part of this team of passionate, motivated, and compassionate individuals.
IG: @sarahfromguam
Aidan Lee
AIDAN LEE (he/him) is a current junior at Palo Alto High School. His current interests are within the subjects of mathematics and physics where he hopes to become an engineer involved in these fields. As an Eagle Scout, Aidan developed a passion early on for helping his community through donations, participating in food-drives, and helping with memorial ceremonies. This passion was initially what led him to join the team at Bay Area Community back in May 2020. He managed the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Resource where he led a team of 12 Palo Alto High School students in manually updating the SNAP database containing over 3,000 different SNAP accepting retailers across the Bay Area and a few additional counties. As Bay Area Community was merged along with unBox, Aidan brought his team of high schoolers over to unBox, where he is currently one of the School Meals Resource Coordinators and continues to lead this team of high school students through the School Meals Resource. Aidan is hoping to cast a wide net with this helpful resource and is eager to continue working with the rest of the team!
Sarah Ali
SARAH ALI (she/her) is a Sophomore at the University of San Francisco (23’), with a major in Economics and Political Science. Sarah is a passionate student leader who believes that it is vital to utilize one's voice to create change. After recognizing thousands of people losing their homes, family members, and friends during the ongoing Syrian Civil War, Sarah a freshman in high school decided to launch the Donating to Refugees campaign, a campaign that has a mission of collecting clothing for refugees. Through her campaign, Sarah was able to raise thousands of pounds of clothing for refugees. In addition to her devotion to serving others, Sarah is a passionate student leader at her university and aims to empower young students to become active agents for change. She led sexual harassment and mental health campaign within her City in hopes of spreading more awareness about the ongoing issues. She believes that change is a collective effort and as a first-generation college student, she is passionate about inciting change. With her experience, she aims to amplify the efforts of unBox to reach the refugee and immigrant population in the United States.
IG: Sarahrose.00
Sarah Chan
SARAH CHAN (she/her) is a senior at Palo Alto High School. Sarah has loved math and working with numbers ever since she could remember. After taking a statistics course last year, she really wanted to apply what she learned in a meaningful way. Sarah initially volunteered at partner organization Bay Area Community, which she was drawn to because of its goal to help those in need navigate their way during the COVID-19 crisis. It was from there that Sarah eventually made her way to unBox. Working with the unBox team pairs her strong desire to give back with her love for numbers. On the data team, she is currently analyzing the churn rate of SNAP participants. She feels so fortunate to be surrounded by a group of inspiring and supportive individuals, all reaching for the same goal of reducing hunger. In her spare time, Sarah enjoys designing and building robots and participating in STEM outreach programs with her robotics team to share her passion with the next generation. She hopes to pursue engineering in college.
Kashika Bharol
KASHIKA BHAROL (she/her) is a first-year Regents’ & Chancellor’s Scholar at UC Berkeley, double-majoring in Molecular & Cell Biology and Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology. She is passionate about increasing access to basic needs resources and reducing health disparities. Kashika is pursuing these interests through her role as the Medical Resources Coordinator for the Bay Area Community resources project at unBox, where she is managing the accurate input and updating of free and low-cost medical and mental health resources in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kashika is also raising awareness for health issues impacting the South Asian community through her work for the Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative and is addressing student housing insecurity as a Student Wellness & Advocacy Associate at the Associated Students of the University of California, at Berkeley.
Tianyi Chen
Tianyi Chen (she/her) is a sophomore (class of 2024) of Stanford University and plans to major in Economics and Psychology. She is also a current researcher at Stanford Law School. As an international student from China, she has a great passion towards helping people in need in the Bay Area, especially those who are troubled by language use. Working with this helpful platform, she provides Chinese translation for related contents, and through this, she believes that more people can feel cared in their lives.
Zoya Chughtai
ZOYA CHUGHTAI (she/her) is a junior at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. She is interested in the complexities of the healthcare system in the U.S. and wants to increase access to healthcare.
Samantha Liu
Data Team Lead
SAMANTHA LIU (she/her) is currently working on her M.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University (‘21). More recently, she has discovered her passion to work on social impact projects that address income inequality and the lack of access to basic necessities such as transportation, housing, and food. She believes the best way she could contribute is to combine the efforts of data science and policy to help local governments make more informed decisions about their community. She joined unBox with a mission to first understand the potential factors that cause food insecurity and insufficiency and then bridge any existing research and policy gaps within the food space. Through the creation of various data-centric dashboards and tools with policymakers in mind, Samantha excitedly continues to work with the rest of the team to ask questions and learn more about the political and logistical challenges of solving food insecurity.
Charly de Nocker
CHARLY DE NOCKER (she/hers) is a sophomore at the University of San Francisco studying International Studies with a concentration in Global Politics and a double minor in Middle Eastern Studies and Public Service. She works as an EMT for the city of San Francisco and hopes to one day become a Firefighter Paramedic. She believes food insecurity is a public health crisis that we must confront immediately. Charly’s passion for public service led her to join UnBox in June 2020, which has given her the opportunity to advocate for anti-hunger legislation and outreach. Charly is deeply humbled and proud to be part of the unBox team!
IG: @char.the.czar
Katie Gu
KATIE GU (she/her) is a recent Stanford graduate (‘18 BS/BA Biology and English Literature; ‘19 MS Bioengineering). She is currently working on strategic collaborations for diagnostic development at Genentech. Previously, she has designed self-healing plastics for sustainability as a research assistant at NASA Ames. With unBox, Katie is a proud member of the policy group and is thrilled to contribute to the group’s research on legislative developments within the food security space!
Ginnie Tran
GINNIE TRAN (she/they) is a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles ('22) majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. She is the Co-Lead of the CalFresh Initiative at UCLA and project coordinator for a research study about food insecurity amongst Asian American elderly under the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. They joined unBox per the recommendation of her PI and unBox advisor, Dr. May Wang, and has been the point person for CalFresh policy and college basic needs framework questions. She believes food should not be a controversial topic and no one should ever have to worry about their next meal.
Trinity Vang
TRINTY VANG is a senior at the University of San Francisco, majoring in International Business and minoring in Environmental Studies. She believes that community building, civic engagement, and empathy can create a more just world. Trinity dedicates her time to diversifying the environmental movement by serving on the executive board of the BIPOC Students for the Environment Organization on USF campus. She has also gained experience in the public sector by interning with Assemblymember David Chiu, as well as, with Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs. In addition, she advocates for and works within the Southeast Asian community by volunteering with Hmong Innovating Politics. Overall, her passion is to empower the narratives of marginalized communities. For this reason, Trinity joined unBox in June 2020 to help support food insecure communities. She is excited and grateful to continue her passions with other motivated individuals on the unBox team.
….and more!
Our Advisors
Ram Bala, PhD (Associate Professor at Santa Clara University, Co-Founder of Project Stanley, algorithm developer at GetUsPPE.org)
Joel Berg (CEO of Hunger Free America)
Eric J. Brandt, MD (Clinical Lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Medicine)
Scott Carter (President and Chief Strategy Officer of Conduit Government Relations, former Chief of Government Affairs for USDA Food and Nutrition Service [2007-2019] and Disaster Response Coordinator in the FNS Office of Emergency Management [2020-2021])
Ertharin Cousin, JD (CEO and Founder of Food Systems for the Future, former Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, EVP of Feeding America)
Sophie Egan, MPH (Author, Founder of Full Table Solutions, and Co-Director of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative)
Sarah Franz (Project Manager at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, Chicago Director at Food Systems for the Future)
Christopher Gardner, PhD (Professor of Medicine at Stanford and Director of Nutrition Studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center)
Arun Gupta, MBA (Columbia Capital, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Business School) - “The unBox team leverages both data analysis and community-based insights to understand the scope of food security across the US and make these findings actionable. Their impact driven focus has led them to foster relationships with policy and decision makers to provide tailored and specific information, in real time.”
Derek Ouyang (Program Manager at Stanford’s Future Bay Initiative, Co-Founder of City Systems) - “The unBox team is leveraging unique and powerful datasets to expand our collective understanding of food insecurity, and putting that actionable intelligence directly in the hands of advocates and decision makers.”
Eric Rimm, ScD (Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition and Director of the Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School)
Pasquale Rummo, MPH, PhD (Assistant Professor at NYU School of Medicine) - ”The unBox team combats food insecurity, hunger, and access barriers through data analysis, advocacy, and persistence – all through the lens of health equity and social justice.”
Maya Sandalow, MPH (Policy Associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest)
Conrad Schmidt (Editor, Educator, and Agroecology Activist) -"The folks at unBox are working to develop a nationwide platform for a number of much needed, food-related advocacy programs to reduce hunger in America.”
May Wang, DrPH (Associate Professor at the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences)
Donna Hunter, PhD (Advanced Lecturer for Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric) - “Although I am inspired by every aspect of this volunteer team’s commitment to reducing food insecurity, what I find most spectacular about unBox is their ability to ask nuanced questions, create and present data that answers them, and find the people and organizations who can use that information to make substantive change.”