Brandeis Stories

April 24, 2026

To Elizabeth Ford, true public service is based on community need, not necessarily personal passion.

The Brandeis junior, announced Friday as one of just 55 college students nationwide selected to be a 2026 Truman Scholar, used research and program coordination to support the queer community in Downeast Maine as an intern with the nonprofit Healthy Acadia.

Through helping to create space for queer people to feel accepted, she was able to do qualitative, community-engaged research to measure the impact of queer community-building events and what could be done better. The goal was to support mental health and build emotional resilience.

“I am passionate about pursuing policy and programs to address rural public health in many ways, but the reason much of my past experience is in queer organizing and community building is because it mattered to my peers and my community and I could see people struggling,” Ford said. “This is what community engagement and public service mean to me: leveraging the skills you have to the benefit of your community, addressing their issues and concerns, not mine.”

Former Arizona governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, announced the recipients of the premier graduate scholarship for aspiring public service leaders in the U.S. on April 24. Each Truman Scholar receives funding for graduate studies, leadership training, career counseling, and special internship and fellowship opportunities within the federal government. It is the third straight year a Brandeis student has been named a scholar.

Ford, a Health: Science, Society, and Policy and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies double major, with minors in sociology and sexuality and queer studies, hopes to use her scholarship to pursue a master’s in public health with a concentration in community health. She said her public service goal is to build a healthcare system that addresses health disparities in rural communities by eliminating financial and geographic barriers to healthcare services.

“I am just so incredibly grateful and honored to be a recipient of the Truman Scholarship, joining such an incredibly passionate group of people dedicated to changing the world,” Ford said. “Every finalist and Truman Scholar I met in the application process has been so kind and supportive, and I am so lucky to be connected with such an extraordinary group of people.”

Ford said many of the skills she has developed to pursue her goals of engaging with rural communities were honed through her involvement in the Community Engaged Scholars Program and COMPACT’s Samuels Scholars Program. She also credited taking American Health Care last semester with Darren Zinner, associate professor of health: science, society, and policy with allowing her to critically analyze the U.S. healthcare system and work to develop a policy that addresses all of the stakeholders and intersecting systems.

Her community building skills are also evident right here on campus: as a leader in MAD Band, she founded and managed the instrument lending program, and started conversations that evolved into Bandapalooza, an instrumental music festival created as a space for smaller musicians to perform.

“Through this work, I have developed a community that actively improves itself by making music accessible to those who may not have had the same privilege to engage with such a powerful community-building force,” Ford said.