Marisela Márquez, PhD 

Marisela Márquez, PhD is an educator, scholar, and facilitator whose life and work have been shaped by the borderlands of identity, geography, and justice. For over two decades, she served at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as an administrator, faculty member, and most recently, as Executive Director for Associated Students. A proud queer Chicana and first-generation scholar, Marisela has dedicated her life to creating spaces of belonging for students navigating the complexities of higher education and social transformation.

Her perspective is deeply informed by her lived experience growing up on the U.S.–Mexico border, where she witnessed firsthand how communities survive and thrive amid the forces of militarization and displacement. Holding a PhD in Political Science, she bridges academic rigor with lived wisdom—centering storytelling, reflection, and community care as forms of resistance and renewal.

Through the Acosta Institute Fellowship, Marisela hopes to deepen her facilitation practice and expand her capacity to lead workshops, trainings, and retreats that honor healing-centered leadership. She joins this cohort to alchemize her experiences from the borderlands into new frameworks for collective learning—spaces where story, truth, and transformation meet.