Anna Lenaker

Anna Lenaker received her Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and her Master of Public Affairs from Brown University. She spent a year of her undergraduate career studying abroad at the University of Oxford where she completed independent research in religion, environmental change, and human-environmental relationships. Anna has accomplished all this as a first-generation and low-income student and, most importantly, with the love and support of her communities.

Anna recently published her first book, Able to Be Otherwise. She hopes the book will contribute to ongoing conversations surrounding poverty, addiction, and climate change. She believes in the power of stories to comfort and to change minds and, in sharing hers, she hopes to inspire greater compassion and understanding towards the poor, those struggling with addiction, and the Earth. Anna wants her readers to walk away with a deep conviction that things are able to be otherwise and that a more gentle and compassionate world is on the horizon. Anna is an avid reader, walker, and coffee drinker. She loves binge watching Jeopardy!, traveling to new places, and sampling new cuisines.