Marela began her journey as a Literacy Coach with Book Babies in Forsyth County in 2021, and is excited to join as a full member of the Book Harvest team in 2026. Prior to this role, Marela had worked as a Library Assistant for the Spanish Outreach Department with the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Libraries. In this position, she worked very closely with the Spanish-speaking community to bring the outreach Bibliobus to their neighborhoods. She served children of all ages and noticed how challenging it was to introduce new reading concepts to older children who had not been exposed to literacy earlier within their families and communities. Through the library, she was introduced to the Book Babies program. It didn’t take long for her to see real potential for improvements in the community with this program, and she felt that it was the perfect way for her to embark on a mission to kickstart the next generations in literacy.

Marela lives in Winston-Salem with her family, and you can catch her in December at the Candle Tea, a Christmas tradition for the Home Moravian Church in Old Salem, NC.