Trish Abalo joined the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University in September 2020. As a research associate, she supports data collection, analysis, and storytelling for the Community Data and Research Lab. Alongside her applied research and evaluation work, her project initiatives have focused on equitable economies, the history of U.S.-based philanthropy, and diversity in nonprofit leadership.

The daughter of first-generation Filipino immigrants, Trish was raised in Mid-Michigan. She is passionate about the intersections of data, racial justice, and social equity. Previously, she was an Emerson National Hunger Fellow through the Congressional Hunger Center in Denver and Washington, D.C., focused on local and national approaches to ending the root causes of hunger. She completed a year of service with Cherry Health AmeriCorps to advance health equity in West Michigan and was the first Monitoring and Evaluation Fellow for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology D-Lab in Northeastern Thailand. Trish is a graduate of the Honors College at Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary social sciences.