Matthew Miller, a Ph.D. student in Urban Planning and Development at the USC Price School of Public Policy, has been named the recipient of the 2014 Sarah E. Samuels Award for New Health Professionals, presented by the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA).
The award recognizes a student or new professional who has shown interest, dedication and leadership in obesity-prevention efforts.
Miller, who is in his first year of the Ph.D. program, is advised by Associate Professor Lisa Schweitzer. He holds a Master of City Planning, Environmental Studies, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was mentored by Annette Kim, who recently joined USC Price’s faculty. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Stanford University.
Miller’s award-winning work began in 2013 as an MIT Public Service Fellow with the Stockton City Council, serving as a liaison on community-based clinics with churches and hospitals and advising on food policy with the city’s local health activists.
This past summer, Miller was the lead author on a 25-page report “Planning for Healthy Revitalization: Food and Nutrition Policies for Stockton’s General Plan” with the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) coalition of community and local public health officials.
His scholarly activism includes providing spatial data support for CCPHA’s successful application for nearly $500,000 in grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services to improve access to healthy foods and beverages for the African-American community in Stockton. The grant will extend REACH through 2017.
On Nov. 6, Miller was given a California State Senate Recognition in Stockton for receiving the Samuels Award.