Fleurian Filkins (they/them) is a leader and advocate dedicated to equity and creating sustainable, systemic change to uproot food insecurity and poverty in the United States. They take a highly collaborative, intersectional approach to this work, partnering with advocates across the country and centering the voices and perspectives of people experiencing food insecurity and poverty wherever possible.
As a Policy Specialist in Feeding America’s Government Relations Department, Fleurian supports the execution of Feeding America’s public policy work to empower communities and improve food security. Their work focuses on federal policy analysis, federal rulemaking engagement, and creating data analyses, visualizations and issue briefs to support Feeding America’s policy priorities. They joined the Policy Team in 2022, following six months as a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow on Feeding America’s Public Benefits Access and Advocacy teams.
Fleurian also serves as a rotating member of the Executive Team, representing Feeding America’s Council of Leads—an association of employee resource group leaders. In this role, they help connect the Executive Team to staff, refine and shape Feeding America’s strategic priorities, and build a more inclusive and equitable organizational culture.
As a queer, transgender person with lived experience with food insecurity, Fleurian understands many of the challenges that members of the LGBTQIA2S+ community face that impact their food and financial security and ability to access food assistance. They advocate for the inclusion of LGBTQIA2S+ neighbors within Feeding America’s work and throughout the work of organizations helping to address food insecurity and poverty. As part of this work, they’ve served as co-chair of Feeding America’s LGBTQIA2S+ employee resource group and as the Government Relations representative on Feeding America’s LGBTQIA2S+ Equity Exploratory Group. They are also an active member of the LGBTQ+ Anti-Poverty Action Network.
Prior to Feeding America, Fleurian was a Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow at the DC Office of Planning’s Food Policy Division. In that role, they worked with seniors experiencing food insecurity, government agencies and local nonprofits to develop interventions to address senior food insecurity in the nation’s capital. These efforts culminated in a report and testimony that contributed to the enactment of laws to help reduce senior food insecurity in D.C. and the allocation of over $1 million to help address the issue.
Prior to this work, Fleurian earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from SUNY Geneseo, and associate degrees in psychology and liberal arts from Finger Lakes Community College. During their time at SUNY Geneseo, they successfully led an effort to establish a food pantry and food pantry delivery program on SUNY Geneseo’s campus, amid other sustainability initiatives. For their service, they earned the Margaret W. Matlin Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Campus Sustainability Leadership Award.