About me
Marnita formed her embodied understanding of the deep and enduring impacts of being left outside the ring of love through beginning life in the foster care system moving between three different homes before the age of 2. This experience of dislocation brought her the critical insight that every human has a deep abiding need to belong. Recognizing that feeling one is a necessary part of our community is integral to both individual and community success led her to multi-disciplinary study in neuroscience, organizational development, experience engineering, and environmental human-centered design. She identified that it was possible to turn the embodied practice of inclusive belonging into a transferable and scalable model.
In 2005, she launched Marnita’s Table, a bridging social capital incubator and introduced the proven model of Intentional Social Interaction (“IZI”). A human-centered approach to building healthy communities while decreasing disparities, IZI catalyzes enduring personal friendships across difference. IZI is a systemic solution to increase “inclusive belonging.” IZI is built upon the same peer-reviewed behavioral science called “experience engineering” that retailers use to make consumers spend money and feel good while doing it. Marnita’s Table was the first social-profit organization to modify this retail technology to convince “pre-judgers,”—humans—to willingly collaborate with the “other” by leveraging the power of neutral space, resonance, stickiness and fabulous food.
In the past 20 years Marnita has shepherded what began in one living room of a former throw away foster kid into a nationally and internationally recognized set of practices, processes, and tools for doing more than just inspiring peace.
IZI has helped unleash increased trust, catalyze connections across difference, support healing from trauma while delivering community-based problem solving by holding and teaching IZI all over the United States. Those traditionally left out of the decision- making process are able to affect and even lead public policy through authentic relationships with civic and business leaders. Those with power become more adept listeners, more culturally sensitive, actively inclusive, receptive to alternative viewpoints and genuinely responsive to the needs of the less powerful. Meanwhile, those who have previously been pushed to the margins, unheard or ignored take their rightful seats at the decision making and resource sharing table to help co-create a better future for all.A 2009 Shannon Leadership Fellow and a 2014 Roy Wilkins Fellow, Marnita is a social entrepreneur who has invented IZI, a replicable way to catalyze strong relationships between disparate organizations and individuals in order to deliver stronger, more engaged communities for the benefit of all. Her TedTalk “Imagine if Everyone Had a Seat at the Table” inspires individuals who have traditionally been pushed to the margins to rightfully take their seats at the leadership and decision making table.
She is a frequently sought-after interactive presenter on the topic of Bridging Social Capital. A senior communications industry veteran with more than 30 years experience facilitating, innovating and team building for non–profit and for-profit organizations, C-Suite executives, and youth, Marnita employs an innovative and goals-oriented approach to achieving inclusive belonging and reciprocal connection objectives. A skilled and energetic facilitator, she excels at demonstrating the positive rewards garnered from proactively identifying and maximizing social capital. Marnita’s professional and community volunteer activities focus on energizing groups and individuals to make proactive transformational change through intention, communication and action.
Marnita is herself a prime exemplar of strength through multiculturalism. She is a biracial woman born of a Black man from the Dominican Republic and a Jewish Danish-American mother, raised by Irish-German immigrant adoptive parents, with American Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese foster siblings. She is now the essential anchor for a family including her husband Carl, his two Jewish-Norwegian children, and her own son, whose father is Black.
