Marina Harrison

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Marina Harrison Beauty pageant titleholder
Birth name:	Marina Harrison
Birth location:	Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Height:	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Eye color:	Brown
Hair color:	Brown
Ethnicity:	African-American
Title(s):	Miss Maryland 2003 Miss Maryland USA 2005
Major Competition(s):	Miss America 2004 (4th runner-up) Miss USA 2005 (Top 10)

Marina Harrison is a former beauty queen from Maryland who the first women to represent that state at both Miss USA and Miss America.

Harrison was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, grew up as a military brat, living in locations all around the United States.^[1] She entered her first pageant at age 21 in the hope of gaining scholarship money after her parents were unable to pay her tuition costs.^[2] Harrison first competed in the Miss Maryland 2002 pageant held in June 2002, where she placed fourth runner-up. She returned in 2003 as Miss Burtonsville, and won the Miss Maryland 2003 title.^[3] Harrison represented Maryland in the Miss America 2004 pageant held in Atlantic City, New Jersey in September 2003. She placed fourth runner-up in the nationally televised pageant, which was won by Ericka Dunlap of Florida.

After giving up her Miss Maryland crown, Harrison competed in and won the Miss Maryland USA pageant, which was held in North Bethesda, Maryland in December 2006. Representing Maryland in the Miss USA 2005 pageant held in Baltimore in her home state in April 2005, Harrison placed in the top ten, and was the first delegate from Maryland to make the cut since 1995. In November 2005 she passed on her crown to Melissa DiGiulian of Ocean City who has been her first runner-up the year previously.

Harrison received a bachelor's degree in communications and public relations from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003 after collecting more than $52,000 in scholarship money from her pageant participation.^[4] Her aspiration is to become White House press secretary^[5] and she has been active in all levels of politics. She worked in the Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of State in Arlington, Virginia for three years.^[6] She is currently employed as the Public Information Officer for the Maryland office of the Secretary of State, coordinating media relations, publications and public information initiatives for the Governor's Executive Department.^[7] She has previously worked for the Maryland Department of Education and was involved with the Maryland and the Maryland Teen Advisory Council initiatives.^[8] Her first experience with the public education policy came when she was by her peers and appointed by the governor to be the Anne Arundel County Student Board Member at age seventeen. At the time she was the only full voting student board member in the United States.^[9]