Eli J. & Phyllis N. Segal Citizen Leadership Program

Andrea Tyree

2021 Heller MPP Segal Fellow

Andrea Tyree is an MPP candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University concentrating in Poverty Alleviation. She is a proud Affrilachian (African-American Appalachian), who consistently finds herself returning home to West Virginia in order to assist her community in battling various forms of socioeconomic oppression. As a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Howard University’s Political Science program, Andrea has used lessons learned at Howard to help organize rallies and political movements for Black lives in her hometown of Charleston, West Virginia. From 2017 to 2019, Andrea served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Timor-Leste. There, she supported agricultural groups, established youth leadership programs, and partnered with local police departments to organize gender-based violence trainings. She also worked with the statewide grassroots organization Our Future West Virginia, where, in addition to her responsibilities as the Communications Director, Andrea and her coworkers partnered with local leaders to demand institutional change and accountability from the city of Charleston’s police department. Now, as an MPP candidate and Segal Fellow, Andrea is committed to examining American policing—particularly its effect on Black rural communities—and how policy and research can change this system to eliminate its harm on communities of color. As a Segal Fellow, Andrea completed a summer internship learning from policy and research experts working in the field of police reform and transformation. She is eager to learn more from her Segal peers about the intersection of various fields in battling the inequities faced by communities of color.