Advisory Board

Passion for APIFM: Marianna is drawn to APIFM’s mission to support API communities to live healthy and abundant lives. She first engaged with APIFM through the Community Supported Agriculture program, which taught her to appreciate and cook with fresh produce. She is excited to support and learn from APIFM’s impactful work with API communities across Los Angeles. 

Work Affiliation: Project Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab

Bio: Marianna is a proud daughter of immigrant parents from Japan and Venezuela and was raised in west Michigan and the United Kingdom. She moved to California in 2015 where she worked in the non-profit sector engaging the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Latinx communities across California around health and civic engagement. Through this work, she grew a love for working in community and an interest in policy implementation to ensure that policies and programs are responsive to resident needs. Currently, her work with the Government Performance Lab focuses on alternative 911 emergency response programs, which aim to divert 9-1-1 calls to unarmed responders trained to de-escalate crises and connect residents to services. 

Marianna earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the U.C. Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. 

Fun Fact: Marianna loves spending time enjoying the outdoors, especially camping and hiking.