#187: Designing a Just Food Future with Dr. Celeste Davis
Mon Nov 24 2025
Host Melissa L. Jones sits down with Dr. Celeste Davis—public health educator, design strategist, and director of the Public Health Scholars Program at American University—for a thoughtful conversation on how food justice, public health, and community power shape one another in today’s shifting landscape. Through her path as a bridge-builder, Dr. Celeste shares why food justice is rooted in dignity, culture, policy, labor, land, and the structures that determine who gets to thrive. She reflects on the possibilities and limits of policy, the importance of local action, and how design thinking and empathy can create systems that feel liberatory rather than transactional. Grounded in her work with emerging public health leaders, she offers a hopeful vision for collectively designing a more just and community-centered future.
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Host Melissa L. Jones sits down with Dr. Celeste Davis—public health educator, design strategist, and director of the Public Health Scholars Program at American University—for a thoughtful conversation on how food justice, public health, and community power shape one another in today’s shifting landscape. Through her path as a bridge-builder, Dr. Celeste shares why food justice is rooted in dignity, culture, policy, labor, land, and the structures that determine who gets to thrive. She reflects on the possibilities and limits of policy, the importance of local action, and how design thinking and empathy can create systems that feel liberatory rather than transactional. Grounded in her work with emerging public health leaders, she offers a hopeful vision for collectively designing a more just and community-centered future.