Marissa Presser (’13 Marketing, ’24 MBA )

2026 Service to Smeal Award 

Marissa Presser is a Senior Managing Consultant at IBM with nearly 13 years of technology transformation experience, serving clients across the distribution, life sciences and industrial sectors. She specializes in organizational change management and project management, providing employee-focused solutions to help navigate change and accelerate business process adoption. Marissa’s client engagements have taken her across Europe, Asia, and South America, where she worked for extended periods of time in Belgium, France, and Slovakia. She volunteered as IBM Consulting’s Penn State Co-Campus Recruiting Lead for several years. Marissa received five IBM Service Excellence Awards for strong client delivery and her work on internal IBM initiatives.

During her time as an undergraduate, Marissa held multiple leadership roles in Smeal student organizations, including serving as President of the Penn State American Marketing Association, the Smeal Student Society, and the Smeal Student Council. Under her leadership, the Penn State American Marketing Association was named a Gold Collegiate Chapter, and corporate participation in the student-run Marketing Career Fair increased by over 200%. Marissa completed Human Resources and Marketing internships with the Smeal Business Career Center and served as a Teaching Assistant for the Department of Management and Organization. She earned the Ralph H. Wherry Student Service Award and the Smeal Board Sponsorship Award in 2013.

After graduation, Marissa joined the Smeal Club Philly Leadership Team, spearheading events, communications, and operational initiatives prior to serving as President from 2019 to 2023. She contributed to the Smeal Alumni Society Board for a decade through various leadership roles on the Alumni Engagement and Student Success committees, then served as President from 2023 to 2025. Marissa represented Smeal on the Penn State Alumni Council, served as a Faculty Mentor for the Nittany Lion Consulting Group, presented to classes and student organizations, and continues to mentor Smeal students. She received the Joan M. McLane Recent Alumna Award from the Penn State Alumni Association in 2021 and remains passionate about student organization leadership development, recent graduate engagement, and expanding Smeal’s global alumni footprint.

Marissa holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and an MBA from The Pennsylvania State University. She resides in Haverford, PA.