Marissa is from the small town of Petrolia, Ontario, Canada. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Iowa while competing in NCAA D1 Track and Field (Javelin), researching accelerometer algorithms, and working in the University Hospital’s Burn and Trauma Unit. She was thereafter accepted to the Harvard-MIT MD-PhD programme, however deferred entrance after receiving a 2021 Canadian Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Marissa completed a MSc in Neuroscience (2021-2022) where she engaged in research projects involving relationships between brain development and disease (e.g., sleep, neurological, and psychiatric disorders). She is now continuing this work through the DPhil in Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics which broadly involves immunohistochemistry, bioimaging, software development, regional cell quantification, and in silico 3D brain reconstruction. Marissa’s future interests involve translating basic neuroscience and engineering research across healthcare, humanitarian, and policy-related domains. She intends to pursue the intersection of such topics upon MD-PhD matriculation – particularly as relevant in underdeveloped research and medical settings – for the research portion of this programme. Outside academia, Marissa enjoys athletics, nature, travelling, working on her family’s farm, board games, music, and spending time with loved ones.