Marlena Chertock is the Communications Manager, Water at the World Resources Institute. She leads communications for the Water Program, coordinating among several programs, teams and International Offices, crafting narratives and communication strategies, managing the program’s newsletter, social media, and external messaging, and facilitating events.

Previously, she served as the Communications Specialist for the Governance Center. Prior to joining WRI, she worked at the Society for Science & the Public, was selected to be a News21 Fellow at Arizona State University, and interned with various media organizations, including Marketplace, WTOP, USA TODAY, and Education Week. She received a bachelor's degree in Journalism and a creative writing notation from the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House from the University of Maryland.

Marlena serves as the Co-Chair for OutWrite, Washington, D.C.’s annual LGBTQ literary festival, and on the Board of Split This Rock, a nonprofit that cultivates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. She has two books of poetry, Crumb-sized (Unnamed Press) and On that one-way trip to Mars (Bottlecap Press), writes articles on green technology for Electrical Contractor Magazine and often moderates or speaks on panels at literary conferences.