Ms Marchesich, a national of Canada, holds a Master of Science in Nutritional Sciences and Human Biology from the University of Guelph and McGill University in Canada and a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Sciences with a minor in Human Kinetics and an emphasis in Health from the University of Guelph in Canada.Prior to joining FAO she served in the Health Systems and Services Division of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in Washington D.C.

She joined FAO in 1999 as Nutrition Advisor at headquarters in Rome where she contributed to global nutrition guidelines food composition data and support for member countries in integrating nutrition into national policies and programmes. From 2003 to 2009 she served as Operations Officer in the Emergency Operations and Rehabilitation Division. From 2009 to 2011 she served as Coordinator of the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases Programme in Viet Nam.

Since 2016 she has served at FAO headquarters in the Office of Emergencies and Resilience as One Health Programme Priority Area Co-Lead and Food Chain Crisis Operations and Coordination Team Leader. In these roles she has led large-scale programmes including coordination of FAO’s Level 3 Desert Locust response and management of the Emergency Technical Cooperation Programme.