Jamila Michener is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Dr. Michener’s research examines how Medicaid affects democratic citizenship. Through further literature, Dr. Michener unpacks how federalism transforms Medicaid beneficiaries’ interpretations of government and structures their participation in politics, and assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.