An award-winning consumer advocate, Marceline has dodged bullets and hid aid under lacy underwear in El Salvador, been arrested and jailed in protests against U.S. involvement in El Salvador and Haiti; tear-gassed protesting global free trade agreements in Seattle, WA; Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Quebec, Canada, as well as protests in support of Black Lives Matter.
Marceline’s commitment to economic rights, participatory research, and grassroots organizing has taken her to five continents where she’s worked with progressive advocates on fair trade, health equity, women’s labor, and more. Marceline has spoken before Congress, the OAS, and the Maryland General Assembly about economic equity and intersectionality. She’s written on advocacy strategies, gender and trade, economic rights, and consumer protection issues. Marceline has led successful advocacy campaigns to integrate gender into U.S. trade considerations, end payday lending in Maryland, eliminate modern-day debtors prisons, expand wage protections for low-income workers, and pass the strongest protections for patients with medical debt in the country.
Marceline’s research and opinion pieces on economic rights have been widely published and cited. Her research and writing on gender and international trade have been cited in policy and academic articles. She is a contributing author to Trading Women’s Health and Rights? Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health in Developing Economies (2006) and Women and Justice (2004).
Marceline’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Scrawl Place, The Orchard Review, The Indianapolis Review, Atticus Review, Snapdragon, Little Patuxent Review, Please See Me, Quaranzine, Gingerbread House, The Copperfield Review, The Free State Review, The Loch Raven Review and others; anthologies including Ancient Party: Collaborations in Baltimore, 2000-2010, and Life in Me Like Grass on Fire. Essays, op-eds, and other writing has appeared in Woman’s Day, Baltimore Fishbowl, Baltimore Sun, and Mother Jones. When not engaged in activism, she can be found learning how to better serve her two cats, posting too many pictures of her garden on social media, and reminding her son to text her when he arrives at the party.
She holds a Masters of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh and a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Missouri Columbia.
Awards
- Woodside Award for Systems-Wide Reform, Financial Capability Coalition (2020)
- Consumer Advocate of the Year by the National Association of Consumer Advocates (2017)
- Excellence in Advocacy, tri-state Common Sense Conference (2017)
- Lorraine Sheehan Award for Excellence in Advocacy, Community Development Network (2017)
- Best Community Film for Stealing Trust, National Community Reinvestment Coalition (2015)
Memberships
- Consumer Federation of America, former president, current member of the board of directors (2016-present)
- National Community Reinvestment Coalition, board of directors (2016-present)
- Attorney General Frosh’s COVID-19 Task Force, Consumer Protection co-chair (2020)
- Federal Reserve Faster Payments Systems, workgroup (2016)
- Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS), board of directors (2016)
- Yellow Sign Theatre, actor and writer (2010-2013)
Marceline White 