While completing her bachelor’s degree, Newman worked as a Research Assistant at DePaul University from 2001 to 2003 and as a Marketing and Budget Intern from 2003 to 2004. While completing her MPH, Newman was a guest lecturer at Zambia Adventist University, teaching undergraduate-level environmental health and science.

After earning her MPH in 2006, Newman was a research associate at Loma Linda University. Her responsibilities included serving as the Native American Health Initiative Project Manager, where she liaised between the Office of Public Health Practice and individuals in the Native American community. She also collected, analyzed, and prepared data for reports and presentations and developed a GIS curriculum for undergraduate and graduate students related to public health.

In 2008, Newman left her job at Loma Linda University and moved to New York City to be a Senior Environmental Health Coordinator for WE ACT for Environmental Justice. From 2010 to 2011, she was a Senior Fellow in the Environmental Leadership Program, which supports action-oriented and diverse leaders in the environmental field. Newman continued her commitment to diverse communities through a health lens and, in 2011, became Director of Public Health. As Director, she identified strategic partnerships with institutions, organizations, and community members to create healthy communities in Northern Manhattan. This included planning and facilitating events, trainings, and workshops, and overseeing program staff, interns, and fellows. Moreover, on top of overseeing and contributing to novel research, Newman monitored a five-year strategic plan and the annual program budget for the program.

From 2010 to 2016, Newman was a Women’s Voices for the Earth board member. In 2016, Newman departed the nonprofit world for a job in local government. She became the Assistant Director of Public Housing and Health at the New York City Housing Authority and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She continued to leverage strategic and innovative partnerships to promote healthy housing and communities in New York City by engaging the community to foster positive health outcomes and dispel stigma. 

One of Newman’s most interesting experiences was her involvement in a project that delved into the complex dynamics within housing communities. Using the Photovoice research method, she engaged with tenants, building management, and support staff, such as supers, porters, and handymen, to better understand the challenges within these buildings. Photovoice is a qualitative research method in which participants are asked questions, take photos related to the topic, and document the participants’ explanations or narratives about the pictures they took.

Initially, there was a prevalent perception echoed by both management and residents that supers were lazy and neglecting their duties. However, Newman’s research revealed supers often face unreasonable workloads, given the number of residents they were responsible for. Additionally, the staff-to-resident ratio led supers to become targets of frustration and blame.

Newman’s project shed light on various factors, including the unrealistic expectations of building staff and the challenges of dealing with waste and garbage management. The project also emphasized the need to address more significant systemic issues in waste and sanitation, as scapegoating individuals for problems within a broken system was an inadequate solution. Her experience highlighted the complexities of the housing environment and the broader challenges associated with waste management and consumerism.

Newman spent nine months with the New York Housing Authority before joining The JPB Foundation as a Program Officer in 2016. In 2019, she was a PLACES Fellow with The Funders Network, a fellowship focused on increasing lasting impact in systemically disregarded communities with resources and tools for funders to understand philanthropic effects. Since 2019, Newman has been a member of the Health and Environmental Funders Network’s Steering Committee. In 2020, Newman was promoted to senior program officer. She oversees the Environment Program, which seeks to help create resilient communities. Newman’s focus is the environmental health portfolio that seeks to minimize and eliminate indoor and outdoor pollutants.