Natalie Posever '14.5 is passionate about health equity, an issue she has been tackling for the last four years through her extensive work with Health Leads, TRI-Lab, the Rhode Island Department of Health, and her research at Brown.

Q: How have you been involved as a changemaker during your time at Brown?
A: During my time at Brown I've been engaged in work that is broadly centered around eliminating health disparities in Providence. I worked as a volunteer and Program Coordinator for Health Leads for four years, which really ignited my passion for the issue when I first joined freshman fall. At other points I've been part of the Healthy Early Childhood TRI-Lab, worked at the RI Department of Health, and worked on a senior project about low-income preterm infants at Women and Infants Hospital.

Q: What is the most important lesson you've learned since starting this work?
A: One thing that strikes me about social and health services in the US is just how siloed they are from each other. An important lesson I've learned (but still have yet to learn how to follow) is that often it's better to improve upon what exists (for example, linking existing services) than to create something new.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to any college student thinking of becoming a "changemaker"? 
A: Ask a lot of questions. Never assume you know the whole story-- there is always more to a person, an organization or an idea than what meets the eye!

Q: What is your personal mission statement?
A: I don't have a mission statement, but I do have a quote that I live by. On January 16, 1968 Martin Luther King Junior told a story of a priest during biblical times, who saw a hurt man by the side of the road. King says, "'And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But then the good samaritan came by, and he reversed the question 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'"

Q: What's one interesting fact people might not know about you?
A: My Basset Hound's name is James Bond.

If you know a Brown student or alum who is making a difference on campus, in Providence, or around the world, nominate them here to see them featured as Changemaker of the Week.