Based in Portland, Marilou is a health equity advocate by day and art adjacent by night. Her experiences as a Filipina and Japanese person who immigrated to the U.S. as a child, as well as her time practicing as a registered nurse, advocating for communities of color, and promoting public health have long persuaded her of the importance and imperative of sharing stories. They co-developed Elemental Eating, a storytelling platform that alchemizes ancestry, diaspora, and story through food; recognizes and honors complex, diasporic histories and origins; explores tangled and evolving relationships to food; transforms and communes through eating and storytelling; and combines the sacred and mundane. Marilou continues to partner with creatives for equity and social justice around Portland.

Marilou will be working to support our Grantmaking Committee, compile all the data they’ll need to make decisions, develop and improve materials, and adapt MRG’s processes so that we can make our Spring grants with as little disruption as possible.