Marissa Heyl is an anthropologist-turned-fashion maven who fuses handmade artisan fabrics from developing countries with fashion-forward designs–or as she puts it, fair trade made sexy. She has worked with a multitude of artisan communities, building on her experience as a Duke Enterprising Leadership Fellow at Ten Thousand Villages. Heyl’s inspiration to start Symbology developed from her research as a 2006 Mahatma Gandhi Fellow, in which she researched how fair trade empowers craftswomen in India. She graduated from UNC with a dual BA in Journalism and Anthropology.