Marissa is an anthropologist, designer and storyteller passionate about creating environments that promote wellness and equity in the workplace, featuring pieces by marginalized artists around the world. She was named one of the Top 50 Entrepreneurs in Dallas-Fort Worth for her two social impact ventures focused on empowering women through design.

In 2019 Marissa founded Etico, a majority BIPOC, women-owned sustainable boutique based in Fort Worth, Texas, that celebrates handcrafted pieces focused on people and planet. She’s partnered with women artisans in India and Mexico to create body positive, fair trade clothing for Symbology--an ethical fashion label she founded in 2012 that merges handcrafted fabrics with trend-forward style. She merges her background in anthropology and social justice to her designs, celebrating the cultural symbolism imbued into each motif as a means to connect people around the world.

Marissa’s inspiration to start Symbology developed from her research as a UNC Mahatma Gandhi Fellow and later as the Duke Leadership Fellow at Ten Thousand Villages. Marissa has worked with a multitude of artisan communities in India, the West Bank, Mexico and the Philippines over the past 15 years and holds a degree in Journalism and Anthropology from the University of North Carolina.