CISWH Fellow Maya Coykendall (MSW’24) Joins Panel on Dignity-Centered Design for Economic Mobility Programs

Maya Coykendall (MSW’24), research fellow in the Health Equity Research Lab at the Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health (CISWH) at BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) recently spoke at “Using Ethnography and Storytelling to Shape Practice” at Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath)’s 2026 Disrupting Poverty Conference. The conference gathered health and human services practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to discuss strategies for improving economic mobility. 

Coykendall introduced speakers Cecilia Ballí, founder and principal of Culture Concepts LLC, and Gamuchirai Madzima, senior director of EMPath Labs, and moderated their panel to explore the San Antonio GOALS Initiative, a program that examined the outcomes of both financial coaching and cash assistance interventions to address inter-generational poverty.  

Drawing on stories from eight women in the GOALS project, the speakers discussed the psychological burden women are conditioned to carry in silence, the role extended family plays in inter-generational poverty, and how immigration status and access to financial support programs can affect an individual’s sense of empowerment when making important life decisions. Participants were invited to explore their own cultural biases towards poverty and discuss the ways in which lived experience and having a space to share stories is essential to designing better systems to address poverty and improve financial mobility among different populations.  

Learn more about Maya Coykendall’s work.