Marie was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also completed her bachelor of arts in Political Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Upon completion, she traveled to the District of Columbia, to finish a master of arts in Education Policy Studies at the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

Before joining Advance CTE, Marie interned at the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and received the Pietro S. Nivola Intern Award in Governance Studies. Marie worked concurrently in a local think-tank, focusing her research efforts on workforce and postsecondary policy advocacy relevant to the Mountain West region. Throughout her graduate career, Marie worked as a research assistant on an evaluation team measuring and reporting outcomes of a federal grant awarded to a state charter schools association. She also worked in Fairfax County Public School’s Office of Research and Strategic Improvement as a research assistant, helping to produce the district’s annual ESSER III data report.

On the Data & Research team, she supports and contributes to Advance CTE’s data quality and initiatives to promote data-driven decision-making among state Career Technical Education (CTE) leaders and within the organization.