Turning Science Into Solutions — One Community at a Time
This research investigates the development and sensory analysis of functional alkaline beverages incorporating blueberry-derived antioxidant compounds as a targeted public health intervention. The study integrates food chemistry, nutritional science, agricultural sustainability, and community health policy across underserved populations in the American South.
A policy framework addressing nutrition equity and water access as interconnected public health and civil rights issues in Alabama's Black Belt communities. Proposes federal, state, and community-level interventions drawing on environmental justice law, agricultural policy, and community health research.
Wes's policy research extends well beyond the thesis into the legislative, regulatory, and community frameworks needed to translate academic findings into real change.
Water infrastructure, EPA enforcement, and environmental racism in Southern communities.
Federal funding frameworks and policy advocacy for HBCU community infrastructure.
USDA programs, food deserts, and agricultural investment in underserved communities.
Black land ownership, cooperative agriculture, and the future of small-scale farming in the South.
George Washington Carver was an orphan. He came to Tuskegee with nothing except a commitment to using science to solve the real problems of real communities — particularly Black farming communities in the American South.
Wes's research lives in that lineage. Alkaline beverages, blueberry antioxidants, nutrition equity frameworks — these are not abstract academic exercises. They are tools built to do what Carver's peanut research did: feed and sustain communities that the broader system has consistently underserved.
"Start where you are, with what you have, make something of it, and never be satisfied."
— George Washington Carver