Marissa Castellanos

Marissa Castellanos (she/her) is Founder and Director of The Coterie, providing training, technical assistance, resource development, and project formation and implementation related to anti-human trafficking and intersecting issues.

As Director of Grants at Love146, Marissa provides leadership and support for grant management. Prior to Love146, Marissa worked at Catholic Charities of Louisville where she began in 2008 developing the Bakhita Empowerment Initiative, a statewide program addressing human trafficking through services, prevention, training, and awareness. Marissa is a representative member of the National Advisory Committee on the Sex Trafficking of Children and Youth in the U.S. and leads the planning and implementation of the National Labor Trafficking Conference. Marissa also provides training and technical assistance to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Through her work as a member of the HHS Region 4 Human Trafficking Advisory Group, Marissa co-authored the Guiding Principles for Agencies Serving Survivors of Human Trafficking. As a member of the Kentucky Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force Data and Research Working Group, Marissa co-authored the 2024 Kentucky Statewide Human Trafficking Data Report. Marissa is a 2024 Daughter of Greatness honoree, which recognizes prominent women engaged in social justice, humanitarianism, and social change through the Muhammad Ali Center. In 2023, Marissa received the Visionary Voice Award from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, which recognizes creativity and hard work of individuals around the country who have demonstrated outstanding work to end sexual violence.

Her areas of expertise include: Development, implementation, and training on the Guiding Principles, Labor trafficking, Direct service provision and case management, Professional development, Working with foreign national survivors of trafficking, Case management, Rural communities, Technical assistance, Language access