2nd Lieutenant Madison Marsh, U.S. Air Force Academy graduate (Class of '23) and current graduate student at Harvard, was crowned Miss America 2024, making her the first active-duty military member to serve in that role. After her mother's passing from pancreatic cancer in 2018, she began the Whitney Marsh Foundation with her family. As president and founder, she has been able to raise more than a quarter million dollars for research with her leadership team at the foundation.

Marsh graduated with a bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and is currently a graduate intern with Harvard Medical School to utilize artificial intelligence to detect pancreatic cancer. She is now pursuing her master's degree in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School with her national Truman Scholarship.