Marisa (pronounced Mah-REE-sah — rhymes with Theresa) has been a mission-based storyteller for over twenty years who is most at home on the west coast of South America and the east coast of North America.

Prior to joining WSB, she directed marketing, communications, and fundraising efforts for various nonprofit institutions including UMass Amherst College of Education, Verité, and The Alliance for Children Foundation. In addition, Marisa founded and ran a nonprofit arts center in Brooklyn, co-directed a summer writing program for teenage girls in London and Manhattan, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador. She is a founding board member of We Pivot, advisory board member of Left Margin LIT, and a member of Macondo Writers and The Writers Grotto.

When Marisa’s not harnessing the power of storytelling on behalf of organizations, you can find her reading voraciously, writing creatively, and baking obsessively. A recent transplant from the Bay Area, please wave if you see her driving around Baltimore with her husband and two kids in their avocado green 1978 VW camper van!