Our Team

draper@mailbox.sc.edu
803-777-2413

Carrie has been with the Arnold School of Public Health since 2011, conducting research and evaluation studies and leading projects to: understand and address food insecurity and obesity; strengthen public nutrition assistance programs; and build community and organizational capacity to change policies, systems, and environments (PSE) to make healthy eating and active living more accessible and equitable in communities. Currently, she is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, and has served as the founding Principal Investigator of USC’s SNAP-Ed Implementing Agency since 2015. Her educational background and professional identity are rooted in social work.

pagea@mailbox.sc.edu

Ashley is a SNAP-Ed Program Coordinator in the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health. In her current role, she works with numerous libraries across the state implementing nutrition based policy, system, and environmental change strategies. She is also the current Chair of the Columbia Food Policy Committee, the first municipal food policy committee in the state. Her SNAP-Ed work also focuses on creating additional food policy committees across the state.

herrnstz@mailbox.sc.edu

Zach joined the SNAP-Ed team in 2019 and provides training and technical assistance to communities interested in starting and sustaining local food policy councils rooted in equity and inclusion. Employing a food justice lens, he conducts community-based research and program implementation examining the intersection of community food systems, food policy, and improving access to fresh, local, sustainably grown and culturally appropriate food. Zach received a masters degree in Community Food Systems from Michigan State University, and worked in the nonprofit sector prior to his current position, advocating for sustainable food and agriculture policies at the local, state, and federal levels. In his free time he enjoys camping and hiking with his wife and playing with their dog, Olive.

TEIXEIRA@mailbox.sc.edu

Amy joined the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina in 2020. She has over ten years of experience in public health. In her current role, Amy works on healthy food access initiatives within health care settings. She currently convenes the Food is Medicine South Carolina Committee, which is part of the South Carolina Food Policy Council. Amy is interested in food policy, particularly improving access and creating healthy food environments; she recently completed her term as a member of the City of Columbia Food Policy Council.