She graduated from Luskin in 2019, where she focused heavily on environmental policy and its impacts on marginalized communities. Her APP team worked with SCOPE, a CBO focused on environmental justice, to analyze how the state can best use cap-and-trade funds to reduce environmental burdens and create economic opportunity in low-income areas. As a student she served as co-chair of Outreach for Policy Professionals for Diversity and Equity (PPDE), facilitating programs to recruit and retain historically underrepresented students to the MPP program. She continues to work with current students as a member of the PPDE alumni committee. While at Luskin she developed a focus on using R to analyze large datasets and visualize data, and loved her time as a TA for public affairs undergraduates.

Prior to joining Luskin, she earned a degree in International Relations and a minor in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California, Davis, where she enjoyed long naps on the quad and searching for the elusive arboretum otter.

Please visit Marissa’s LinkedIn to learn more about their professional experience.