Public Service Fellowships
Meet the 2026 Cohort of Maguire Public Service Fellows!
Tripp Gulledge
Graduate | Religious Ethics Ph.D. | Class of 2030
Sponsoring Organization: Envision Dallas — Farmers Branch, TX
Tripp will spend the summer at Envision Dallas, a Farmers Branch organization that creates meaningful employment for blind and visually impaired individuals. His project is rooted in his dissertation’s central question: what makes work morally good and animating in an age of automation, subcontracting, and finance-dominated capitalism, and what can institutions that treat employment as a moral good teach the rest of the working world? Across the fellowship, he will learn alongside Envision’s in-house Ph.D. researchers studying blind workforce participation, support the development team with grant-writing and storytelling, and build relationships with employees to better understand what makes their community flourish. By summer’s end, Tripp will have contributed concrete development and research support to Envision while gathering the ethical and theological insights that will shape his eventual account of work as “meaningful, animating activity.”
Tanya Harathi
Undergraduate | Biological Sciences | Class of 2029
Sponsoring Organization: DEEP (Disease Eradication through Education and Prevention) Trust — Hyderabad, India
Tanya is working with DEEP Trust in Hyderabad, India to explore how attitudes toward preventive healthcare shape health behaviors in underserved communities. Inspired by her experiences in India during the 2021 COVID-19 wave and her previous research on preventive healthcare attitudes among teenagers in the United States, she is interested in understanding why preventive care is often delayed or overlooked even when services are available. Throughout the summer, Tanya will volunteer with DEEP Trust’s medical outreach initiatives, including community health camps, patient support services, and public health awareness programs, while conducting informal interviews with patients across age groups about their perspectives on routine screenings, long- term health management, and barriers to preventive care. By combining these qualitative insights with observations from community health screenings, Tanya hopes to help DEEP Trust strengthen its outreach and health education efforts so that preventive care becomes more accessible and meaningful to the communities it serves.
Muntaha Sabir
Graduate | Master of Public Policy | Class of 2027
Sponsoring Organization: Ma’ruf Dallas — Dallas, TX
Muntaha will work at Ma’ruf Dallas to bridge the gap between immigration policy and public understanding, addressing how terms like “immigrant,” “refugee,” “asylum seeker,” and “migrant” are often used interchangeably despite reflecting fundamentally different legal definitions and personal circumstances. Drawing on her policy background and nonprofit marketing experience, she will spend at least 200 hours of the summer organizing panel discussions in collaboration with the Muslim Legal Fund of America, local Bar Associations, and SMU faculty; producing short-form video content for Ma’ruf Dallas’s digital platforms; and writing a final report that synthesizes her research and serves as a long-term educational resource. Ma’ruf Dallas will be left with a written guide, a video series, and panel programming that strengthen both their community engagement and donor relations work long after the fellowship concludes.
Halle M. Tarvin
Graduate | Medical Anthropology Ph.D. | Class of 2028
Sponsoring Organization: Texas Cannabis Collective — Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Halle is collaborating with the Texas Cannabis Collective (TCC) to design, build, and moderate a centralized digital hub for Texans with chronic conditions who turn to medical cannabis when conventional treatments have not met their needs—a community currently scattered across Meta, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, and Signal, and increasingly underserved as national organizations like the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have stepped away from Texas. The Discord-based hub will consolidate events, volunteer and leadership opportunities, FAQs, educational materials, expert testimony guides, and emerging research into a single accessible space, alongside scientific data summaries that support the community’s ongoing advocacy campaigns. By the end of the summer, Texas medical cannabis advocates and patients will have a streamlined, fully functional hub linked across the disjointed platforms they currently occupy, and Halle will have built the foundation for her dissertation research following Texan patients and advocates through the spring 2027 state legislative session.
Maddie Wiltse
Graduate | Master of Divinity | Class of 2027
Sponsoring Organization: Sister Grove Farm — Van Alstyne, TX
Maddie will partner with Sister Grove Farm in Van Alstyne, Texas to co-host and produce 10+ podcast episodes that share stories of faith and regenerative farming with the farm’s growing digital community. Drawing on her experience growing up on a regenerative farm in central Kansas, the project addresses faith communities’ ethical and spiritual responsibility to care for creation, while uniting her theological studies at Perkins with her commitment to the holistic formation of people, communities, and ecosystems. Throughout the summer, she will prepare and co-host interviews, contact and schedule guests, edit episodes, and research and write on ecology and faith for both Sister Grove’s blog and her own academic work. By the end of the fellowship, she will leave Sister Grove with a revived podcast series and a body of writing that contributes to academic and public conversations about regenerative agriculture, faith, and the ethics of caring for the earth.
What is the Maguire Public Service Fellowship?
The Maguire Ethics Center’s Public Service Fellowship, with financial assistance from the Irby Family Foundation, empowers SMU students to spend over 200 hours during the summer contributing to public service or ethics research with organizations of their choice. With $2,000 for undergraduates and $2,400 for graduate students, the Fellowship provides essential gap funding, helping students access opportunities that advance their personal and professional growth. Fellows gain real-world experience working within nonprofits, businesses, research institutions, or community groups from around the world to create meaningful change.
Previous Fellows have contributed to a wide range of projects, from advocating for human rights with the Human Rights Initiative to researching medical ethics at UT Southwestern and addressing food insecurity with Meals on Wheels. Whether it's volunteering with a local nonprofit, supporting a cause they care about, or dissertation research, Fellows can design their project to match their goals. Along the way, Fellows strengthen their problem-solving skills, learn to navigate complex ethical issues, and gain insights that they carry into future leadership roles. Fellows leave the program with hands-on experience addressing real-world challenges, sharpened leadership skills, and valuable professional connections that shape their academic and career paths.
Completing a Public Service Fellowship equips Fellows with essential skills and experiences that prepare them for professional success. Fellows will:
- Develop Problem-Solving Skills: Contribute over 200 hours of meaningful public service or research, tackling real-world challenges in fields like healthcare, social justice, and education.
- Earn a Stipend: Receive $2,000 for undergraduate Fellows and $2,400 for graduate Fellows in recognition of their commitment.
- Enhance Teamwork and Collaboration: Work closely with diverse groups, including nonprofit professionals, community leaders, and peers, to achieve shared goals.
- Build Communication Expertise: Present their research or public service projects and discuss their Fellowship experience with the SMU community and other audiences, sharpening both written and verbal communication skills.
- Gain Practical Leadership Experience: Step into leadership roles that require managing projects, motivating teams, and achieving impactful outcomes.
- Expand Professional Networks: Connect with nonprofit, business, and community leaders, creating valuable relationships that extend beyond the Fellowship.
- Foster Adaptability and Initiative: Navigate complex issues in dynamic settings, demonstrating flexibility and proactive engagement in their projects.
Who Can Apply?
All full-time SMU undergraduate and graduate students with a GPA of 3.0 or better are eligible to apply. Students must be returning to campus for the fall 2026 semester. Fellows must complete at least 200 hours of service during the course of the project.