Marie Hopper is President of FIRST North Carolina, a statewide nonprofit dedicated to providing life-changing high-school robotics programs that give young people the skills, confidence, and resilience to build a better world.  She became the Regional Director for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) program in North Carolina in 2009 and helped orchestrate the first-ever FRC Regional Tournament in North Carolina in 2010.  FIRST North Carolina was founded in 2012 to advance the mission of FIRST even further in North Carolina. Marie is passionate about the mission of FIRST North Carolina - ensuring that every student in the state of North Carolina has access to a high-quality FIRST Robotics Competition program.