Marianna Moles

Marianna Moles currently serves as Communications Officer for the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, where she leads multilingual communications to equitably promote free health services to the most vulnerable people. In early 2020, Marianna led the first communications team in the county to provision the public with the necessary knowledge and tools to stay protected against COVID. She created the VaxUp Video contest in 2021 to increase COVID vaccinations among youth, which received submissions from students at 41 schools across all 15 cities in the county. The contest received multiple awards. In 2017, the County Office of Supportive Housing hired her to help increase affordable housing services by writing the stories of successfully housed people. Previously, Marianna helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and established a recognizable brand for Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit that helps house and employ homeless people. When Hurricane Harvey devasted Texas, Marianna volunteered for the local American Red Cross chapter and deployed to Beaumont, TX for two weeks to help raise money for the nonprofit. She traveled around the four hardest-hit counties to visit survivors living at shelters, and wrote their compelling stories. Marianna grew up in the Central Valley and moved to the Bay Area for college, graduating from San Jose State University with a Bachelor’s in Public Relations. She has recently begun sharing more about her struggles with an anxiety disorder and major depression, since realizing that speaking up makes her a stronger advocate for others living with mental illness.