About me
Marleny was born in Nayarit, Mexico, and raised in a small dairy-farming town in Washington State’s North Puget Sound region. A formerly undocumented immigrant and DACA recipient, she immigrated to the U.S. with her family at the age of four. Bilingual in Spanish and English, she brings a rich background in community outreach, youth work, qualitative research, data analysis, and teaching. Her work is grounded in a deep commitment to community advocacy, education, and health equity.
Marleny began her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington Tacoma, initially pursuing a degree in business. However, after taking her first course in race and ethnic studies, she shifted her academic focus. As a Bamford Fellow, she conducted in-depth interviews with members of a farmworker community in Northwest Washington, amplifying their voices and highlighting the systemic barriers they face in accessing healthcare and education. Her research was both published and presented at the Global Engagement Conference.
In 2018, she earned a double major in Healthcare Leadership and Ethnic, Gender, and Labor Studies, along with a minor in Global Engagement. She later pursued her graduate education at the University of Washington Seattle campus, where she completed a master’s degree in Education Policy in 2020.
Since then, Marleny has continued to serve her community through a range of impactful projects, including leading a youth-driven COVID-19 health initiative focused on underserved communities of color, teaching at a center for unaccompanied minors, and co-leading a research study on barriers to breast care for Latina women. She remains a passionate advocate for expanding healthcare access and education for Indigenous and Latin American immigrant populations, with a culturally responsive approach that honors community languages, traditions, and lived experiences.
