Marissa Shrum is a Group Strategy Director at Mother New York, leading strategic and cultural impact initiatives at the creative agency.  Her remit includes brand, creative, content, influencer and cultural leadership strategy across Target’s apparel, home, beauty categories.  While she is passionate about bringing substance to the world of style, Marissa has led strategic thinking and making for clients in technology and media verticals, the likes of Google, NBC, SyFy and Microsoft.  She’s most excited when she has the opportunity to both help people and companies find their purpose to navigate ambiguity. She is particularly interested in designing marketing programs where brands connect with creative communities to co-create programs with meaning and mutual benefit.  She brings her experience from the non-profit and political sectors to her work, particularly her experience in youth community organizing.  Her professional journey includes work for the Kerry and Obama campaigns, naming Verizon’s CSR platform, and rebranding Reading is Fundamental.

Marissa has received fellowships from Harvard’s Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy, the Starting Bloc Fellowship for Change, and Vanderbilt’s E. Bronson Ingram Scholarship for Entrepreneurship and Social Change.  She has held volunteer advisory positions at her alma mater, Vanderbilt University, Enstitute (a national apprenticeship startup), and the National Conference for Community and Justice.

Marissa’s Mother, Dorothy, is a local business leader and community activist who also loves to cut a rug.  Similarly, Marissa spends a lot of time watching choreography videos on YouTube and would like to spend more time thinking about how creativity can close income, education and privilege gaps in America.  All of this is to say, Marissa works in marketing because she believes creativity can "heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race."