Bringing People to the Table
Naomi Maisel, Lucius Lamar McMullan Award Winner
To the faculty, staff, and classmates who know her best, Naomi Maisel 16C is an energetic and driven student who built Campus Kitchens Emory, an organization that saves about 1,000 pounds of potentially wasted food every month, then converts it into thousands of healthy meals for those in need.
But they also noted that Maisel, the recipient of this year’s Lucius Lamar McMullan Award, remained a top student while also finding time to serve as a research assistant on a food insecurity project at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, participate with Volunteer Emory, and help new students as an orientation leader.
The McMullan Award, made possible by a generous gift from Emory alumnus William Matheson 47G, honors not just the anthropology major and San Diego native’s exceptional leadership so far but the great things from her yet to come. The award also comes with $25,000—no strings attached.
Her work on hunger issues has made Maisel more determined to change the system for the better. “If people have this kind of faith in me, I realize I better really do something,” she says. “I am kind of overwhelmed by the opportunity, which is a great place to be.”
“My parents raised me to do good for others,” she says. “And at Emory, you could see the wealth, and I found it juxtaposed with the poverty right down the street.”
