Marcel Reid was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a mother who was a nurse and schoolteacher, and a father who was a businessman. She and her family moved from Ohio to California when Marcel was 11, and eventually graduated from Compton High School.

Marcel has lived in several states, including New Jersey and Massachusetts, eventually settling in Washington, D.C. joining the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), an agency committed to teaching impoverished people how to work their way out of poverty. Eventually, Marcel became the  President of the Board and head of Acorn D.C. and Northern Virginia. In that role, as one of a three-member Interim Management Committee (IMC) to reorganize ACORN after the discovery of a major embezzlement, Marcel discovered the difficulties in reporting and fighting against corruption, as well as finding herself as a whistleblower.

After leaving ACORN, Marcel joined the National Board of Directors of Pacifica Radio, playing a part in Pacifica becoming the first national media organization to vote to support whistleblowers. Reid also became the first Whistleblower Liaison in Major Media. She is the organizer of the annual Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights and Film Festival where she became an advocate for whistleblower’s who needed to tell their stories and heal from their retaliation trauma. She has devoted decades to this cause and has mentored generations of whistleblowers and was even a force for support when Whistleblowers of America was first taking shape.