--- title: A Peek Inside … Public Policy Professor Brandi Slaughter’s Office date: 2023-10-17T05:30:00-04:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/a-peek-inside-public-policy-professor-brandi-slaughters-office" section: Articles --- # A Peek Inside … Public Policy Professor Brandi Slaughter’s Office *October 17, 2023* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih) > Framed Food Stamp, Iconic Roosevelt Quote Fuel Child Advocate’s Activist Spirit *Brandi Slaughter SPP Office 08092023 SC 0308 1920x1080 — Associate Clinical Professor Brandi Slaughter directs a program that teaches undergraduates at UMD how to become children's advocates. "This initiative gives me this opportunity to build the bench," she said.* “I want everybody to be a children’s advocate,” said Associate Clinical Professor Brandi Slaughter in the [School of Public Policy](https://spp.umd.edu/). “Kids are lost in the discussion. They don’t have lobbyists like the AARP. They don’t vote. But they deserve advocates that are just as trained.” As director of the [Karabelle Pizzigati Fellows Initiative in Advocacy for Children, Youth and Families](https://spp.umd.edu/research-impact/projects/karabelle-pizzigati-initiative-advocacy-children-youth-and-families)since 2021, she’s equipping undergrads from across the University of Maryland with the skills to get heard, supported and funded in the crowded halls of Congress. They are placed with a children’s advocacy organization, where they receive a stipend for working 120 hours, and take a policy class that teaches everything from data analysis to how to engage families, policymakers and nonprofit organizations. Slaughter draws on her own experiences. Her family used public assistance when she was young, and after college, she returned to her home state of Ohio to serve families in need. She started out running an after-school program for high-risk youth at settlement houses before earning a law degree and pivoting to policy, working for legislators and advocacy groups. “Kids only have one childhood. We have to make sure we are providing programs, systems, investments to ensure that childhood is the best that they can have. Because we know on the other end what happens if we don’t,” said Slaughter. Abuse and neglect, parental substance use and domestic violence are linked to chronic health problems, substance use issues and more in adulthood, stunting educational and work opportunities. Slaughter shares how a snowy fall led to her career as a children’s champion, why she takes the fellows to a Terps women’s basketball game every year and the galvanizing speech from a century ago that still resonates with her. **Framed food stamp** “I personally know what it means to rely on programs like Medicaid and food stamps,” said Slaughter, recalling her childhood in West Virginia and Ohio. “Most people don’t know what it means to go to a register and have to pull out an alternate form of payment. It’s embarrassing.” Today, food stamps are no longer paper slips but rather on cards, making it easier for people who use them to make purchases unobtrusively; this was an administrative but transformative policy change, she said. “I keep it because it reminds me where I’ve come from,” she said, pointing at the food stamp on the top row of her bookshelf. “It fuels my activist spirit.” --- *a framed postcard, a mug and a golden statue sit on a white bookshelf* --- *Framed black and white photos, thick black tomes of Congressional records, a wooden gavel and a postcard that says "All Power to the People"* **Records from Congress** The thick black tomes are records of testimonies and hearings from the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families. [The late Pizzigati](https://today.umd.edu/boost-children-83d133a4-37cd-4bdd-96b7-f904317d586d), a children’s advocate on Capitol Hill and beyond for nearly 40 years, was its last executive director. “It speaks volumes that this committee doesn’t exist anymore,” said Slaughter. “There’s no one (in Congress) saying, ‘We need to pay attention to the kids.’” Pizzigati’s UMD connection came through her Terps basketball fandom. She was a longtime booster of the women’s basketball program who became president of the Terrapin Club, so Slaughter takes the fellows to a game every year in her honor. --- *Black and white photos of black children surround a colorful child's drawing* --- *Amanda Gorman's book "The Hill We Climb," a plaque that says "We rise by lifting others" and white words on a black background from Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech* *This is part of an occasional series offering a look inside some of the most interesting faculty and staff offices around campus. Think you have a cool workspace—or know someone’s that you’d like to recommend? Email* [*kshih@umd.edu*](mailto:kshih@umd.edu)*.* **Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community), [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people) **Tags:** [A Peek Inside](https://today.umd.edu/topic/a-peek-inside), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience) **Units:** [School of Public Policy](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-public-policy)