Marissa Shackleton

Marissa Shackleton entered healthcare through an academic interest in neuroscience. She considered medical school, began graduate work in clinical research and ultimately pursued education that brought healthcare, communication and business together.

Her career evolved alongside The Elliot Lewis Center. As the organization grew, Marissa’s responsibilities expanded into operational, financial and strategic leadership.

That progression has given her a valuable vantage point: she understands both the patient-care environment and the business realities required to sustain an independent practice.

At The Elliot Lewis Center, infusion is integrated with physician care, creating an opportunity for close coordination around people living with multiple sclerosis.

For Marissa, comprehensive care means understanding far more than a diagnosis. Patients bring families, personal histories, insurance challenges and financial concerns into the healthcare experience.

She believes the care model should recognize all of it, supporting patients through clinical education as well as insurance and financial education and helping connect them with available resources.

Marissa has been inspired throughout her career by strong women who have shaped the way she approaches leadership:

“Over time, I’ve learned from the people around me and developed my own leadership style, becoming more confident in my own perspective and experience.”

She particularly values examples of women who have built meaningful careers while also navigating family and life outside of work. Rather than prescribing one model of leadership, those examples have reinforced the idea that women can define success and leadership in ways that work for their own circumstances.

That perspective complements Marissa’s own path. Her leadership did not begin with a predetermined destination; it evolved as she took on greater responsibility and the organization grew around her.

Marissa has also taken what she has learned inside the practice into healthcare advocacy through organizations including the Infusion Access Foundation, NICA and the National MS Society.

Her advocacy has included published commentary, testimony at the Massachusetts State House, state and federal Hill Days and engagement with policymakers.Those experiences allow her to bring her firsthand understanding of patients, families and healthcare operations into broader policy conversations:

“I understand healthcare policy, I work directly with patients and their families, and I manage the business of running a healthcare practice, which allows me to understand and speak to all sides of the issue.”

For Marissa, policy and practice are connected. Decisions made outside the infusion center can directly influence the options available to the people inside it.

Turning frontline practice experience into a stronger voice for healthcare access.