Nerissa was born and raised in Missoula. She joined the WRFI Board in 2020 and currently works as a family physician at Western Montana Clinic. She is also pursuing a Master of Public Health degree through Johns Hopkins with a concentration in maternal-child health and global health. Previous to that, she worked for the Indian Health Service in Zuni, New Mexico for eight years. She then moved back to Missoula in 2011 and worked for six years as a founding faculty member and the Associate Program Director of the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana.

Nerissa became a firm believer in the value of experiential learning after spending a transformative five months on a field-based study abroad program to Kenya during her junior year at Lewis & Clark College. She loves traveling and recently took some time off with her husband and three daughters to live and work in New Zealand as well as travel to several countries in Africa and Europe. She enjoys many outdoor pursuits, including rafting, skiing, and camping with her family.