A graduate of Indian University of Pennsylvania, Marissa Willson majored in Anthropology and minored in Psychology and Global Health. After studying abroad in China, Marissa hiked the 550+ mile pilgrimage, El Camino de Santiago, in Spain. Both experiences led her to work for the Office of International Education (OIE) as a tutor for international students and as a peer advisor for domestic students looking to study abroad. In addition to working with the OIE and as a Head Resident Assistant, Marissa also worked for the Mid-Atlantic Research and Training Institute for Community and Behavioral Health (MARTI-CBH) as a Research Assistant. In this role, she founded the first ever chapter of Kacie’s Cause, a non profit fighting the heroin and wider opioid epidemic, on IUP’s campus. In her last year of university, Marissa pursued her interest in women’s health and anthropology with her own independent ethnographic research for her honors thesis titled, “Access and Ideologies: Women’s Experience’s Negotiating Birth Control.” She is passionate about women’s health, reproductive rights, immigration/displacement issues, & LGBTQ rights. In her free time, she loves to hike, garden, and be creative. Marissa was part of our South Hilltop cohort and served at Jefferson Regional Foundation as the Community Engagement Fellow.