Degree Bachelor of Science in Business Communication
School DeVry University, Class of 2026
Date Sunday, June 7, 2026
Time 2:00 PM CT
How Watch the ceremony live, virtually
After decades, detours, challenges, caregiving, and healing, I am completing a promise I made to myself long ago. This is my moment. This is our moment.
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Who I Am
Every Chapter Prepared Me for This One
"A delay is not a defeat. Dreams do not expire because timelines change."
I was born and raised in Compton, California. I have spent my life watching people carry burdens the world rarely sees: families surviving on determination when resources ran short, caregivers showing up every day without applause, survivors rebuilding after news that changed everything.
In 2014, I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. BRCA1 positive. I went through chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy, and an oophorectomy-salpingo. What I learned on the other side of that journey became the foundation of everything I build and every room I walk into.
I spent four years as a Senior Field Representative for the California State Assembly, served as a DNC delegate, and have 20+ years of digital organizing behind me. Today I lead Marenda Media, my strategic communications firm, and serve as a flight attendant.
I am also a Resilience Life Coach, a John Maxwell certified Speaker and Trainer, a licensed life insurance and annuities strategist, a published author, and this Sunday I walk across the stage to accept my Business Communications degree from DeVry University. Life interrupted the plan. The dream survived.
The Detour Philosophy
Life Interrupts People. Purpose Still Calls.
The World Notices Achievement
I notice labor. Every achievement rests on work most people never see. The caregiver managing medications. The student returning decades later. The survivor rebuilding after loss. Invisible labor keeps families and communities functioning, and it often receives the least recognition. Dignity begins when we learn to see the work people carry.
Leadership Is Responsibility
Leadership has very little to do with titles. It begins when responsibility arrives. Sometimes leadership looks like managing an organization. Sometimes it looks like sitting beside a loved one during treatment. Leadership is service. Leadership is showing up when showing up is the hardest thing on the list.
Dreams Survive the Detour
Many people abandon a future that still belongs to them because they mistake postponement for failure. The two are not the same. A delay is a delay. A dream belongs to you as long as you refuse to let it go. I came back and finished my degree. Purpose survives every interruption life sends.
"The strongest people I know rarely announce their resilience. They simply continue."
When I was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2014, I made a decision. If I came through this, I would use everything I survived to protect other people from what I went through alone. Operation Knockout Breast Cancer Now is that promise made real.
OKBC provides support, services, and resources to women battling triple negative breast cancer while increasing awareness of prevention, early detection, and the disparities experienced by women of color. We advocate for equitable care, promote participation in research, and support advancements in treatment.
No woman walks this road alone. From the moment of diagnosis through survivorship, we wrap our arms around every woman battling TNBC with real resources, compassionate support, and a community of women who understand her journey.
OKBC is currently building its board and preparing to file for 501(c)(3) status. We are actively seeking micro-grants and community support as we establish our foundation.
Increase knowledge and awareness of prevention, early detection, research, and resources in the fight against breast cancer.
Advocacy
Grow and strengthen local, statewide, and national advocacy efforts to increase services and resources for women battling breast cancer.
Philanthropy
Supporting women, families, and communities through fundraising, scholarships, and volunteer efforts.
Community
Expanding our statewide and national reach by actively engaging a diverse array of key stakeholders in the fight.
To Build Trust
Supporting women battling breast cancer and their co-survivors in building trust in healthcare and public service systems, and within themselves, to make life-changing decisions in their fight.
To Empower
Women battling and surviving breast cancer deserve to feel empowered to care for themselves holistically, explore new treatments, advocate for themselves, and participate in research.
To Close Disparity Gaps
Supporting women battling breast cancer, particularly women of color, in reducing barriers and closing disparity gaps to ensure access to necessary care and resources for optimal health.
Fight Like a Grown Ass Woman
Breast cancer awareness. Stroke prevention. Caregiving advocacy. Financial literacy. This initiative exists because health, family, and financial security are all connected, and most people learn that the hard way. I learned it. Now I teach it.
Fight Like a Grown Ass Woman
An interactive journal for women battling breast cancer. 200 pages of writing therapy designed to reduce stress, unleash your fighting spirit, and help you write your own story.
This playlist is where the work lives. Breast cancer. Stroke prevention. Caregiving. Financial literacy. The conversations most people avoid, covered with the directness they deserve.
The playlist opens with Know Her Body — a campaign born from Marenda's own story. Her husband discovered the lump in her breast. That moment became a movement: teaching couples and loved ones to be a second pair of hands, because early detection saves lives.
Created through Color with Marenda featuring Ella Noire. Because an informed woman is an empowered woman.
Marenda Media helps leaders and organizations clarify their message, build credibility, and communicate in ways that people understand, trust, and respond to.
Most organizations have the right ideas. The challenge is getting them out clearly, consistently, and in a way that builds genuine trust with the people who matter most. Marenda Media builds the communication infrastructure that closes that gap.
From public initiatives to organizational repositioning, Marenda Media architects the message, structures the narrative, and aligns communication with real-world execution. The result: audiences who understand the message, trust the source, and move with purpose.
Recognition and Press
The Story Has Been Told in Many Rooms
2024 BCRF Hot Pink Party
Roslyn and Leslie Goldstein Unsung Hero Award, Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Nominated by a senior colleague after Marenda sent her a self-care package of coloring books and journals upon learning of her diagnosis. That gesture said everything about who Marenda is: someone who shows up before anyone asks.
Featured Onboard
Featured in an inflight BCRF awareness video seen by hundreds of thousands of passengers. A national platform for a deeply personal mission.
Health MagazinePrint · Digital
O, The Oprah MagazinePrint · Digital
AllurePrint · Digital
EllePrint · Digital
Sky MagazineInflight
CBS NewsTelevision
Skin WarsReality Television
Flight Attendant
Serving at 35,000 Feet and on the Ground
Being a flight attendant has never been separate from who I am. It is the role that placed me in front of hundreds of thousands of people, carried my advocacy to a national stage, and kept me grounded in service long after treatment ended.
I became a flight attendant in 2017, three years after my diagnosis. It was a new chapter, a new community, and a daily reminder that showing up matters. Every interaction is an opportunity to extend care, dignity, and presence to someone who may need it more than they let on.
Color With Marenda™
Color Your Way to Peace.
Adult coloring books designed to help you protect your peace, one page at a time.
Creativity is one of the most powerful tools you have. Color With Marenda brings together adult coloring, wellness, and community for the woman who needs a place to exhale. Ten percent of every sale goes directly to OKBC.
