Kayla M. Anderson, M.Ed.
Doctoral Student, Community Research & Action, Department of Human and Organizational Development
Kayla Anderson is a doctoral student in the Community Research and Action program at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Whitworth University (2013) and her Master’s in Education in Community Development and Action from Vanderbilt (2020). Kayla’s research is grounded in the theory of environmental justice and focuses on investigating issues pertaining to equity within the built, natural, and social environments. She deploys community-based participatory research methods and geospatial analysis in her work. Kayla has been a member of the Drinking Water Justice Lab since Fall 2018. She is currently the lead research assistant on the Public Water Operator survey (PWOS) project and used the data from the survey to write her master’s thesis, Understanding the Impact of Technical, Managerial, and Financial Capacity Challenges on Community Water Systems and Water Quality in Tennessee.
Funding:
Vanderbilt University, Peabody College, Russell G. Hamilton Student-Faculty Summer Research Grant
Project Title: Tennessee Public Water Operator Survey
Year(s): 2019
Graduate Student Researcher: Kayla M. Anderson
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Yolanda J. McDonald