Mariel Reed received a B.S. in Foreign Service and an undergraduate certificate in Asian Studies from Georgetown University in 2010. After graduating from Georgetown, Mariel spent a year in Xinjiang, China as the Princeton in Asia Teaching Fellow. She then worked as Project Coordinator for China Medical Board, a Beijing-based American philanthropic foundation that advances health in China and neighboring Asian countries through strengthening medical, nursing, and public health research and education. As of 2014, Mariel is the Partnership Manager at Coursera, an education technology company in California.