WHO IS MARISSA?
Marissa Christan Leonard is an AI policy advisor and operations manager with a background in advocacy for small communities, ecosystems, and public land in the American West — sometimes serving organizations, sometimes creating them, and sometimes going it alone in moments when no one else was backing up the work.
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 co-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.
right, but… how does that translate to AI governance?
Marissa has always been drawn to big, complicated questions, especially the ones that don't fit neatly into existing policy or institutional structures. The emergence of transformative AI brought together two interests that had been developing along very different paths: the possibilities of a technology capable of changing nearly everything, and the challenge of figuring out how society should navigate that change.
She began immersing herself in the AI policy and safety landscape, following the research, debates, and emerging governance proposals. What started as independent study grew into a substantial body of original analysis and an increasingly active pursuit of work in the field. She now develops projects and writes about the questions she believes need more attention, while continuing to explore how AI might contribute to a better future.
She has been a writer, artist, musician, barista, hiker, cat-lover, activist and optimist.