Tambra Raye Stevenson, SOC/MA ’22, wants to help her community take back the kitchen. Thanks to Black women leaders in agriculture, nutrition, and dietetics—or “food sheroes,” as she calls them—the slow bake of cultural change has already begun. 

Stevenson, a doctoral student in AU’s School of Communication, has dedicated the last 20 years to advancing food justice. In 2016, she established WANDA, a nonprofit that catalyzes women and girls of African descent to build a more equitable, sustainable, and culturally inclusive food system. WANDA members support each other in their intersecting work and lift each other as they climb.

“We’re no longer hidden figures in the food system. We can [create] the world that we want to see for our families or communities,” Stevenson said. “WANDA provides another identity that a woman can own.”

The Oklahoma native sees the fights for food sovereignty and racial justice as inextricably linked and hopes to engage a million Black women as nutrition advocates by 2030. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, less than 3 percent of nutritionists in the United States are Black. “I’m trying to engineer a new way to think about the culture of health and fitness,” Stevenson said. 

That reimagination takes many forms, including WANDA’s intimate Sisterhood Suppers, which convene community changemakers in conversation over a heritage meal; a scholarship program that has helped 34 women in the US and Nigeria pursue degrees in nutrition, dietetics, and food science; a cookbook; and the sweeping Food Bill of Rights, which frames nutrition as a national security issue. 

Drafted by Stevenson and presented in November to Ashwini K.P., special rapporteur with the United Nations Office on Human Rights, the bill is a “blueprint for a food system that values the health and well-being of every citizen, the sustainability of our planet, and the cultural richness of our diverse communities.”

Stevenson’s interest in the health sciences developed as she watched older relatives battle coronary heart disease and diabetes. When her father, who dreamed of opening a restaurant, passed away, she “got into food to honor and handle my grief.” 

But it turns out, her passion and purpose go back even further.

In digging into her family history, Stevenson—who traces her roots back to West Africa—

discovered her ancestor, Henrietta. Born into slavery and purchased by a Georgia family for $900, Henrietta was forced to raise someone else’s children alongside her own. She “helped create a new life, but [was] never paid for [her] labor,” Stevenson said in her 2023 TEDx Talk.

Although the road to emancipation was long, Henrietta ultimately reunited with her son in Texas. Henrietta’s death at the turn of the twentieth century aligned with the founding of Oklahoma, where her son went on to become an “argrapreneur,” Stevenson said. He helped feed the Sooner State in its earliest years, aiding its growth into the pace where his family would remain.

Through her archival work, Stevenson witnessed how the impact of one shero can stretch for generations. 

She channels that inspiration into her work beyond WANDA, cochairing the DC Food Policy Council’s nutrition and health working group—a position to which she was appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser, SPA/MPP ’00. Stevenson, health chair of the NAACP’s DC branch, is also part of the research team working on AU’s historic five-year, $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study wasted food. 

“Working with Tambra is being inspired with every interaction,” said Sauleh Siddiqui, College of Arts and Science professor and principal investigator on the grant. “She brings a positive outlook and [humility] that allows her to connect with other researchers and people and facilitates communicating complex concepts in clear ways.”

Her presence—among representatives from 15 higher education institutions—always signals that a high-energy meeting is ahead, Siddiqui said.

Stevenson has also supported Professor Sonya Grier, Arlene R. and Robert P. Kogod Eminent Scholar Chair in Marketing, as a teaching assistant. 

“Tambra has a nimble and flexible mind. Although she was not a marketing student, she was able to identify, analyze, and illustrate the marketing issues in support of my teaching,” Grier said. “She is a leader and committed advocate, even when working in a support position.” 

For Stevenson, tackling the mounting wasted food problem requires cultural consideration. Food is medicine, she said, and “When I think about my grandmother, nothing was wasted.” Stevenson wants to supplant the modern mindset, anchored in convenience, with that past resourcefulness and raise African diasporic foods as a particularly powerful medicine.

“The Mediterranean diet isn’t the only diet,” she said. “If we just invested and took time to research, we would see the possibilities of what other foods can do to [improve] the health of our communities.” 

At the table Stevenson is setting, everyone is invited to join.