Marissa has spent time in the fields of environmental restoration, permaculture and small-scale organic agriculture, retail and wholesale plant nurseries, and ornamental horticulture. She is an environmentalist, first and foremost.

She is certified in Horticulture from the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture, in permaculture design, and holds a degree in Environmental Geography from West Chester University. The culmination of her professional and extracurricular pursuits has led her to specializing in native plant landscape design and maintenance.

Her guiding principle in life is to minimize harm as much as possible, wherever possible, and believes that the Earth, although made of millions of individual parts and systems, ultimately functions as one whole. Designed landscapes should consider all Earthlings, and have more function than just aesthetics. Every material good comes from the land, and we should never compromise on best practices.

Marissa currently resides in SE Pennsylvania with her two cats and spends her downtime reading, studying ecological relationships, mending, trying out vegan recipes, and, of course, gardening.