Marisa Franco holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Maryland and is a licensed counseling psychologist, writer for Psychology Today, and author of Platonic: How to Make and Keep Friends As An Adult, published by Penguin Random House in 2022. She was previously an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University and most recently an AAAS fellow at Millennium Challenge Corporation. While a doctoral student at UMD, she won numerous research awards, including the 2013 Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award and the 2015 Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Marisa’s research on human connection and systemic loneliness has been funded by the National Institutes of Health.