Marisa B Nesbit
Marisa Nesbit is a Seattle-based cultural analyst, communications professional, and community advocate whose career spans human resources, public relations, education, and grassroots outreach. With a background in communications and political science from the University of Washington, Marisa spent nearly a decade in human resources, building expertise in people and culture, organizational communication, and community relations across healthcare, retail, and nonprofit spaces. Her work has consistently centered on fostering understanding, equity, and collaboration within diverse environments.
In 2014, a significant health challenge prompted Marisa to pivot her professional path, leading her to found lifewithjaco.com, a community-focused platform dedicated to civic engagement, open dialogue, and cultural awareness. Through this work, she curates and collaborates with contributing journalists, artists, and community voices to create inclusive forums where individuals feel valued, heard, and respected. Alongside her analytical and communications work, Marisa remains deeply engaged in creative and educational efforts, working as an artist, teacher, and mentor to youth through cultural and artistic projects.
Beyond her professional pursuits, Marisa and her husband manage a 20-acre forestry and ranch operation under Double MN Productions, where she oversees administration, budgeting, and daily operations. This hands-on lifestyle, combined with her extensive volunteer work—including leadership roles with Girl Scouts and local schools—reflects her belief in interdependence, civic responsibility, and community stewardship. Across every chapter of her journey, Marisa brings a unifying philosophy: meaningful change happens when communication, creativity, and respect for individual purpose come together.
• Home School Educator
• Community Educator
• National Forensic League Lifetime Member
• North Seattle College- A.A.
• University of Washington- B.A.
• SHRM
• National Forensic League
• ACLU
• Amnesty International
• Girl Scouts of Western Washington
• Lake Washington School District
• Eastside Native American Education Program
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to tenacity, hard work, and resilience, along with building strong relationships, fostering communication and cooperation, and drawing on my diverse experience across retail, human resources, and community engagement, providing me broad access to people from all walks of life, opportunity and circumstance.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was from my great-grandmother who told me to always presume ignorance in any situation. I never want to presume or assume that I understand any situation is from my perspective only as each person has a unique personal view of what issues might be present or arise. I like to have clear information on what everybody's expectations are, including desired outcome, wants and need so that we can plot them out and account for best and worst case scenarios. With this at hand, any outcome that moves within the process will be acceptable and has great potential to improve with course.
I can never know what is happening in the minds of others and this only resolves with open dialogue and feedback in communication for purpose. We gain insight to others through connection, community and coexistance. With this, we each become stronger, more aware and increase capability to develop, grow and thrive. Alone, we can only survive but together we can live and thrive.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell young women entering any industry that absolutely anything is possible—the only limits we face are the ones we place on ourselves through our beliefs.
You have everything you need inside your toolbox and every challenge is the key to the steps ahead. Everything that has ever happened has been preparation for this moment right now. This is the gift of the present moment of the current.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
My biggest challenges really come back to the fact that we live in a society where everybody feels so separate. It's really hard to bring people together for common good and common involvement, and that is the whole function of my website. It's been a 12-year project that I've been focusing on, and it's only been the last 3 or 4 years where I've really been able to get a wider team together to help bring me global perspective and local perspective. We're now advertising for products for people in local markets and can sell products online for people. I don't use my website for profit, but I'm willing to help people get access to sell their products there. The biggest thing is that we don't know how to connect. When people come together to ask for their things, we don't know how to look for what people need, and that's a big thing, professionally and personally, that I struggle with all the time - overcoming the burdens of technology in trying to relate to one another.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I feel that respect is necessary for everybody, so I try to give everybody the respect that I would hope that they give me, in honoring their purpose and their value. I don't try to challenge anybody outside their comfort zone, and I want to make everybody feel like they have a valued place. If I'm willing to spend time to talk to someone, outreach to them or if they're with me, they have a valued place in my life and I respect their purpose of being.
Nothing exists for the self alone. We are all connected in environment, attitude, possibility and struggle. We each have responsibility to know our personal needs and to accept that they will be met or we do not need them. Once we understand that the only thing we must do is survive, we are able to focus on what we each can do to meet our will to succeed and thrive. We live in the struggle between success and failure. If we are doing all we must and releasing the rest to move to what we can do to reach goals for self and all, the door opens to do what you will knowing that everything falls into place.