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TARIANA LITTLE

CEO and Cofounder, Emvision Productions

Age: 30

Heritage: Dominican/German-American

 

Notable Accomplishments:

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  • Harvard Kennedy School Rappaport Institute Public Policy Summer Fellow

  • Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Rose Service Learning Fellow

  • University of New Hampshire Food Solutions New England Network Leadership Institute Fello

  • Best Epilepsy Hack, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Hacking Medicine Grand Hack, 2017

  • Lesbians Who Tech 4th Annual LGBTQ Tech Summit Fellow

  • Albert Schweitzer Fellows

 

At 12 years old, an apartment fire left Tariana’s family briefly homeless. Her family sought therapy after these hardships led her mother to depression and her youngest sister to fail first grade. Luckily, they found a Latina immigrant social worker who supported their mental health needs, provided social resources, and connected Tariana to community-based Latino youth organizations.

 

Born and raised in Dorchester, MA, Tariana is the daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Germany, and Mexico. Because of the mentors and programs that helped her navigate challenges and become the first in her low-income family to go to college, Tariana is committed to expanding life opportunities for others and paving her own path in public health.

 

During undergraduate studies at UMass Boston, Tariana worked as a research assistant at the Mauricio Gaston Institute, researching how storytelling can change people’s health behaviors. Since 2013 as co-founder and CEO of EmVision Productions, she helps progressive organizations leverage the power of storytelling to amplify their work (what she has coined as social impact storytelling™).

 

In 2018, she launched EmVision’s Community Portraits, which highlights the extraordinary work, visions, and voices of community members, including co-producing a short documentary, Stories of Black Motherhood, which recounts how factors like race and gender shape the lives of three Black mothers in Boston.

 

Additionally, as a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan of Public Health, Tariana is using her family experiences of food insecurity to found FooFii, a social venture using technology to connect families to food resources.

 

Growing up, Tariana’s mother kept food on the table through clipping coupons and a buy-now, pay-later arrangement with the corner grocer. Seeking to deepen her knowledge, she served as a 2018 Harvard Kennedy Schools Rappaport Summer Fellow in the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics and the Office of Food Access to design and implement a scalable weekend food backpack program (“Boost Bag”) for homeless youth in Boston Public Schools.

 

Looking ahead, Tariana strives to be a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor working across sectors and countries to promote social equity, health, and well-being. Driven by science, storytelling, and social justice – what she calls “intentional creativity for social change” – Tariana is working towards creating knowledge, mobilizing action, and generating solutions in Boston and beyond. 

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