Marissa Guadarrama Oropeza is a rising senior at Brown University studying International and Public Affairs and an independent concentration in Environmental Storytelling. 

Growing up between two immigrant communities in Los Angeles, Marissa witnessed the repeated exclusion of her community from decision-making spaces, despite bearing the brunt of socio-environmental inequality. As a result, these experiences ignited her passion for leveraging her education and positionality to foster equitable intergenerational climate collaboration. Through her research, advocacy, and leadership, she hopes to shape international and domestic policies that promote social and environmental change, empowering marginalized communities in the process.

Marissa served on the Los Angeles Mayor’s Youth Council, where she worked on local climate and accountability initiatives; she has also helped to develop Brown University’s first Environmental Justice Working Group where she has created opportunities at the intersection of environmental justice, storytelling, and community engagement. Beyond campus, Marissa has worked with the LA-based nonprofit Para Los Niños to help develop a policy agenda advocating for the rights of low-income immigrant families and has also conducted research on U.S. state-level climate obstruction with Brown’s Climate and Development Lab, presenting her findings to legislators and policy think tanks in Washington, DC.