In a world where leadership discussions are rapidly shifting to focus on inclusion, resilience, and purpose, Marissa Cherepanov is a shining example of transformation in motion. As an inspiring female business leader, CEO and Executive Director of No Girl Left Behind USA, she has been dedicated to empowering women and girls to have the confidence and tools to take on leadership roles in every aspect of life. Her own story of adversity, combined with her corporate leadership experience and service to others, has shaped a philosophy of confidence as a skill that can be developed, rather than something one either has or doesn’t.
By hosting massive empowerment sessions, networking, and collaborations, Cherepanov’s organization fills the very important confidence deficit that many girls experience as they grow. Her work combines personal experience with planned development, creating platforms where the participants not only feel inspired at the end of the session but also walk away with a changed mindset.
In this interview, she shares her experiences on how she developed her resilience through the challenges she faced, why service leadership is more important than acceptance, and how No Girl Left Behind is developing a sustainable ecosystem to empower women and girls throughout their lives.
Interview Highlights:
Q. Your experience with No Girl Left Behind combines empowerment and growth tools. How do you see the transfer from confidence building to successful leadership positions for women and girls?
Post-event surveys consistently tell us the same thing: girls leave our events thinking differently about themselves. Many report that the experience changed their life. Weeks later, they share that they feel more confident trying new things, speaking up, shifting their perspective, and forming new friendships within the No Girl Left Behind community. That sustained impact, not just inspiration in the room, but transformation that carries forward is what matters most.
At No Girl Left Behind, we treat confidence as a leadership competency, not a personality trait. It is built intentionally through exposure, mentorship, structured workshops, and access to women who model leadership in real time.
On May 2nd at The Salvation Army Kroc Center in Salem, Oregon, we will bring this vision to life through our dual-track model. Adult women participate in professional development sessions while girls ages 9+ engage in age-specific, hands-on leadership workshops. We intentionally begin at nine because research shows a measurable confidence decline between elementary and middle school. Early intervention changes trajectories.
The women we fly in are selected intentionally. They are chosen not simply for their titles, but for their lived experience, where they are in their journey, and their ability to speak honestly about resilience, growth, leadership, and reinvention. Our 2026 speakers and mentors include Ally Stone (The Inspired Leader, HeartMath practitioner), Kimberly Robinson (Mrs. USA and nonprofit advocate), Alethea Crimmins (recording artist and empowerment educator), Lacey Odum (SheWorks Fitness founder), Jazmin “Jaz” Hayworth (brand strategist and community leader), Carmen Cowan (Ms. Black Oregon 2026), Asianique Savage (Miss Black Oregon 2026), Heleen Red Bird (Indigenous leader and founder of FISH), Alice Hunt (financial empowerment mentor), Tanesha Williams (transformational life coach), and myself.
When a girl learns to use her voice confidently at any age, that skill transfers into boardrooms, entrepreneurship, community leadership, and motherhood. Leadership is simply confidence applied consistently over time, and we are witnessing that transfer happen in real time.
Q. Looking back on your early life and challenges, what most shaped your resilience, and how does it impact how you lead today?
Being tried as an adult at 17, labeled a homeless felon by 18, and spending a decade clearing my name fundamentally reshaped how I understand resilience and identity. That chapter forced me to separate circumstance from capacity. I witnessed every side of life, instability and opportunity, judgment and grace, limitation and possibility. Seeing those contrasts gave me the ability to recognize need quickly and serve it intentionally. When you have lived in both survival and growth, you develop discernment. You learn how to identify where someone is stuck, and more importantly, how to help them move forward.
Long before those challenges, over a decade of competitive gymnastics taught me something that would later carry me through the darkest seasons of my life: visualization. As an athlete, I learned to mentally rehearse routines before ever stepping onto the floor. I learned to see success before it was visible. That discipline of mental rehearsal became a survival tool. In the trenches of life’s hardest corners, I used the same technique, visualizing who I would become, rehearsing the life I wanted internally long before it materialized externally.
That practice changed everything.
It allowed me to rewrite narratives in real time. It taught me how to transform adversity into fuel. It showed me that mindset is not motivational language, it is neurological training. And now, that same growth framework is what I share with women and girls who feel trapped in a lacking mindset. I help them shift the lens through which they see themselves. I teach them how to use every experience, even painful ones, as momentum rather than proof of limitation.
Today, I lead from empathy and accountability because I have lived both. I understand what it feels like to be underestimated, and I refuse to underestimate anyone in return. My leadership philosophy centers on service, creating environments where women and girls are not defined by their lowest moments but supported toward their highest potential.
Resilience to me is anchored clarity, the ability to hold vision steady even when circumstances are unstable. That clarity guides every decision I make for this movement.
The ability to push forward no matter what, to use anything and everything as fuel, is what accelerates No Girl Left Behind at the pace it is growing. This work is not a job. It is lived experience transformed into service. When passion is born from survival and refined through discipline, it never feels like work, it feels like purpose in motion.
Q. You’ve managed teams in corporate environments and movements. How do you balance execution with inclusivity?
Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working for and leading within globally recognized brands including Gap, Swarovski, Chico’s, Maurices, Express, Pandora, Ulta Beauty, Office Depot, Wave, and Heartland. Each organization operates within its own ecosystem, and I made it a priority not just to perform within them, but to deeply understand how every operational layer connects.
Across these brands and sectors, I’ve gained experience in regional marketing strategy, regional and direct sales, B2B partnerships, merchant services, profit and loss analysis, real estate planning and zoning, back-of-house operations, payroll management, inventory flow, and every customer-facing KPI that drives sustainable growth. I have led in high-growth retail environments, performance-driven sales organizations, and business development platforms — learning how marketing, operations, finance, and human capital intersect to drive measurable success.
My experience spans telco, beauty, softline, jewelry, eventing, merchandising, corporate sales, and multi-city marketing initiatives. I have been directly involved in acquisitions, high-level negotiations, expansion planning, and cross-market growth strategies.
Serving in university board leadership has strengthened my governance perspective, allowing me to understand institutional sustainability, stakeholder alignment, and long-term curriculum strategy.
That cross-industry and cross-sector exposure sharpened my business acumen and gave me the ability to see the full lifecycle of growth, from customer acquisition to operational scalability to long-term community impact.
When it comes to balancing execution with inclusivity, I do not view them as competing priorities. Execution provides structure. Inclusivity sustains culture.
I establish clear metrics, defined goals, and accountability systems, while intentionally cultivating environments where individuals feel seen, heard, and empowered. Because performance is not just about numbers; it is about the people driving those numbers.
Understanding both the operational mechanics and the human behavior behind business allows me to teach, scale, and grow organizations that are not only successful in the short term, but resilient for the long term.
That same philosophy carries into No Girl Left Behind. Structure builds impact. Community sustains it.
Q. There are many challenges that some women face. What is one mindset shift a first-time leader needs most?
The most important mindset shift is moving from validation-seeking to service-centered leadership.
Many first-time leaders focus on how they are being perceived. The real transformation happens when that focus shifts to impact, asking, “How can I serve this room?” instead of “Do they like me?”
When leadership becomes rooted in contribution rather than approval, everything changes. Clarity follows. Boundaries strengthen. Confidence stabilizes. Decisions become aligned with mission instead of emotion.
What I have found personally and what we model at No Girl Left Behind is that when you are deeply rooted in service to others, you naturally attract people who are aligned with the same vision. Alignment replaces competition. Collaboration replaces insecurity. That is how we have grown.
Every time we host an event, the impact multiplies. The network expands. The testimonies deepen. The women who attend do not just leave inspired, they stay connected. They bring others. They become mentors. They step into leadership within their own communities. Service creates momentum.
In 2026, our partnership with the local Salvation Army Kroc Center strengthens that momentum in a powerful way. Aligning with an established, community-rooted organization allows us to extend our reach beyond a single event day. It connects girls and women to year-round programming, family-centered resources, and support systems embedded within the community.
That partnership reflects our growth model: not isolated inspiration, but sustainable ecosystem building.
At No Girl Left Behind, we teach women and girls that leadership is not about perfection — it is about responsibility and impact. And when leadership is anchored in service, growth becomes both organic and exponential.
Q. As a Board Advisor in the Women in Leadership program at Linfield University, what leadership trait do you see emerging in the next generation?
Through my advisory role in the Women in Leadership program at Linfield University, I see a generation of women who value emotional intelligence as much as achievement.
The program itself is exceptional. It brings together CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, executives, and educators who collectively meet on a regular basis to discuss the real-world issues facing female leaders today. We examine shifts in workforce studies impacting women, analyze evolving leadership data, collaborate on curriculum development, and actively discuss how to strengthen and support the broader movement of women rising into positions of influence.
It is not theoretical conversation; it is strategic collaboration. We edit, refine, and evolve programming to ensure it reflects what women are actually navigating in corporate environments, entrepreneurship, academia, and nonprofit leadership. There is a shared understanding that leadership development must be dynamic and responsive to cultural and economic change.
What I see emerging from that space is powerful. This next generation of women leaders is collaborative, socially aware, and deeply committed to meaningful impact. They are less driven by titles and more driven by transformation. They understand that leadership is influence, not hierarchy. They value transparency, integrity, and alignment.
That same emerging trait is evident in our youth participants at No Girl Left Behind. When they are exposed to mentors like Ally Stone, Kimberly Robinson, Carmen Cowan, Asianique Savage, and our broader leadership team, they begin to see leadership modeled as integrity in action. They see women who lead with both strength and empathy.
Watching those two worlds, established female executives and young girls just beginning their journey, mirror the same values gives me tremendous hope for the future. It confirms that we are not just building individual leaders; we are cultivating a cultural shift in how leadership is defined.
Q. How do you weave personal experience into mentorship and training?
I mentor from lived experience, not theory alone.
Whether speaking about recovery, rebuilding identity, navigating corporate hardship, or leading while raising a family, I share responsibly and intentionally. Transparency builds trust. When women understand that growth is nonlinear, they stop disqualifying themselves from leadership.
Our speakers embody that same authenticity. Each woman brings lived experience from different industries and life stages, allowing every attendee to see herself reflected somewhere in the room.
Story becomes a bridge, not a spotlight.
Q. What is your future vision for No Girl Left Behind, and how do you see leadership evolving as it expands?
Our vision is expansion rooted in accessibility and sustainability.
May 2nd at The Salvation Army Kroc Center is not just an event, it is an entry point into a lifelong support system. We intentionally connect attendees to:
- The No Girl Left Behind national and global community
- The Salvation Army Kroc Center’s family-centered resources
- Ongoing mentorship and leadership development pathways
- Cross-generational networking between youth and adult women
As we expand across the United States, leadership within No Girl Left Behind will evolve into a structured ecosystem, events, mentorship pipelines, scholarship opportunities, strategic partnerships, and long-term programming that carries women and girls through every phase of life.
Our goal is clear: reach as many girls and women as possible, remove isolation, build confidence early, and connect them to tangible resources that sustain them through youth, education, career, entrepreneurship, motherhood, and reinvention.
No girl. No woman. Left behind.
And we are building the infrastructure to ensure that promise scales with integrity and lasting impact.
“True leadership begins the moment you stop shrinking to fit the room and start expanding to serve it. When a woman stands fully in her truth, she doesn’t wait for permission, she builds the table and invites others to rise with her.”
Connect with Marissa Cherepanov
If you find this interview valuable, you can follow Marissa’s work and connect with her directly:
LinkedIn: Click Here
Websites:
- No Girl Left Behind – Click Here
- Inspire with Marissa – Click Here
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