Marissa brings eighteen years of lived experience. Over all these years, she suffered with her own personal adversity as a patient with a serious, rare, and life-threatening medical condition. Due to the challenges of living with her own disability and degenerative medical condition, she deeply understands the hardship many others go through during difficult times and understands what it feels like to lose hope and yearn for something better, something more.
From a young age, Marissa was separated from her peers and couldn’t live a normal life with the same advantages and opportunities. Her number one dream was to live independently, and safely, and create a home and a life of potential. Marissa tediously and successfully went through her SDA and independent living journey. She is part of a successful Community Cooperative herself and through this, is part of a like-minded community as well as part of the society as a whole.
With great respect and gratitude for everyone in each Community Cooperative, her goal is to educate and deepen the knowledge of everyone in need. She looks forward to working with Enliven Community to help spread awareness of choice and living more independently and to increase the sense of community at all individual sites.
