Samantha Hollinshead
is currently a senior within Barrett, the Honors College double majoring in Sustainability with a concentration in Society and Sustainability and Justice Studies with a focus in human rights. She will be starting law school in Fall 2022 and is interested in the intersection of law, human rights, and advocacy. Samantha first became involved with the Difference Engine when she completed an honors contract on behalf of Ehsan Zaffar’s class, Unequal States of America. She completed the contract by helping draft the State of the Index Report. In December 2021, she took a student position as a Legal Research Aide at the Difference Engine working on the Women’s Power Index.
Prior to her work with the Difference Engine, Samantha worked for various organizations including Tony’s Chocolonely, Public Consulting Group, Waste Not, and the Men’s Basketball team at ASU. In Spring 2021, Samantha defended her honors thesis “Food Insecurity Through the Lens of Sustainability: A Case Study of Phoenix, Arizona.” Through this thesis she analyzed 21 food deserts along Grand Avenue in Downtown Phoenix to better understand access to food, population statistics, long-term impacts of food insecurity on communities, and barriers to being food secure. Samantha has also been selected for the Frasier Global Mentorship Program and was a recipient of the Women in Sustainability award.