Marissa Christan Leonard is an AI policy advisor with a background in advocacy for small communities, ecosystems, and public land in the American West.
Marissa’s work is to usher in a reality where AI creates positive collective transformation, provides solutions to ecological breakdowns, lessens humanity’s struggles, and redefines what is possible. Her non-industry background is her greatest strength in AI policy strategy, and she provides the field with the on-the-ground perspective it was missing.
At the beginning of her career, Marissa worked for watershed restoration organizations such as the Mono Lake Committee and Restore Hetch Hetchy in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain region. She founded and served as Policy Director for a startup that aimed to build enforcement infrastructure for legislation promoting carbon reduction in rural municipalities. Much of her life has also been spent building community through non-conventional service jobs in places like Yosemite National Park, experience that affords her a deep understanding of what happens when systems crumble while they continue to run.
She has been a writer, artist, musician, barista, hiker, cat-lover, activist and optimist.
Marissa Christan Leonard 