Marilyn is a native Californian and physician. She went from Southeast San Diego, where despite being told they don’t take Negroes at Stanford, graduated from Stanford and went on to UCSF Medical School. She then completed 2 years of Surgery residency at UCSF, then her Anesthesia residency at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital. After completing her residency, she became an instructor, then Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Upon returning to California, she worked at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She returned to Oakland and practiced at Alta Bates Hospital. While still working at the hospital, she attended UC Berkeley Law School, focusing on constitutional law and administrative law. She interned at the National Health Law Project and practiced insurance and health law. She had an amazing 2012 when she ran for Congress with a message of personal freedom and limited government.