Welcoming New ACLS Postdoctoral Fellows to Work on Telehealth and Native Networks

We're excited to announce that two postdoctoral fellows will be joining the Institute for Local Self-Reliance this coming fall to undertake one-year broadband projects to advance policy intitiatives and help move the needle towards universal, affordable, high-speed Internet access in the United States. 

The fellows are coming to us through the American Council of Learned Society's Leading Edge Fellowship Program, which places humanities and social science PhDs with nonprofits working to solve problems, build capacity, and advance justice and equity in society. 41 fellows were named for the 2021 year to work on issues like voting, civic governance, housing uncertainty, health outcomes for communities of color, reforming the justice system, and education.

This is our first year participating, and we're thrilled to announce that both of our proposed projects were chosen. The candidates were each unique and outstanding, and we're thrilled to announce that Tessa A. Eidelman (PhD, Community Research and Action, Vanderbilt University) and Revati Prasad (PhD, Communication, University of Pennsylvania) will be joining us starting in September.

Tessa joins us to continue work via a project called Internet Access as a Health Imperative: Defining the Health Outcomes and Cost Savings of Broadband Networks in Unconnected Communities. She will extend the work of an existing project ILSR is undertaking alongside the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative (SRBWI) to explore the cost savings of and increasing health outcomes for communities resulting from the installation of robust networks in rural areas for a constellation of promising telemedicine interventions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, asthma, and cancer. 

Revati will be participating in the Bridging the Digital Divide in Native Nations project, and will conduct original research and writing in service of developing policy narratives that can be used to support new and existing tribal broadband efforts. Her work will no doubt intersect with the recently launched Tribal Wireless Bootcamp initiative led, in part, by ILSR. Her work will position itself also to support tribes as they build broadband networks to provide essential service to residents and assist in meeting the challenges in running small businesses, accessing telehealth, and working and learning remotely in Indian Country.

Welcome Tessa and Revati! We look forward to you joining us!