MORRA AARONS-MELE

Morra Aarons-Mele is an entrepreneur and marketing leader. In her decades-long career as a political, public health, and issue advocacy strategist she has helped the world’s largest organizations change minds, hearts, and behaviors. Aarons-Mele founded the public health and issue advocacy consulting agency Women Online and created its database of female influencers, the Mission List, which she sold in 2021. Morra was named 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year at the Iris Awards, an event created to recognize excellence among digital content creators. She has helped US presidential candidates and a range of global organizations create communications, marketing, and fundraising campaigns. Morra was on the founding team of #GivingTuesday and has launched campaigns for the United Nations, CDC, President Obama, and more. Her work won the Halo Award for best American cause marketing campaign of the year, the Webby Award for best parenting site, the Iris Award for best sponsored content campaign, and the Silver Anvil for branding, PR’s highest honor—all for different projects and clients.

Morra is an advocate, speaker, and trainer in the field of workplace mental health. She is the host of The Anxious Achiever (LinkedIn Presents), a top 50 business podcast and Webby Award honoree, and her most recent book, The Anxious Achiever (Harvard Business Review Press), was named a Top 10 Management Book of 2024 and won the Axiom Award for Best Leadership Book. Her toolkit, book, podcast, and training materials are used by leading organizations and business schools around the world. Recognized as a LinkedIn Top 10 Voice in Mental Health and shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Achievement in Leadership Award, Morra is passionate about helping high performing leaders and teams develop mental wellbeing.

Morra has degrees from Brown University and the Harvard Kennedy School, and lives in Boston with her family and menagerie.

CHRISTINE KOH

Christine Koh is a music and brain scientist turned multimedia creative. A graduate of Wheaton College (B.A., music and psychology double major) and Brandeis University (M.A., cognitive psychology), she spent a decade in academia, during which time she earned prestigious fellowships from the National Institutes of Health to fund her Ph.D. research at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario) and joint-appointment postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Christine was about to become a professor when she decided to hang up her academic spurs in favor of more flexible and independent ventures.

Since 2006, Christine has built an award-winning creative portfolio as an author (Minimalist Parenting), podcaster (Edit Your Life, Hello Relationships), speaker, designer (Posh Peacock, Brave New World Designs), and mission-driven creative director. She has actual trophies for her podcasting and livestreaming work, and has bylined for Boston Globe Magazine, The Washington Post, CNN, and more (her articles have gone viral and led to interviews on NPR and BBC World News, and one of her essays for Boston Globe Magazine reached #1 on the most-read articles leaderboard the day it published). Her design work (graphic, apparel) has been featured in major media and worn by celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssa Milano. In her work as a creative director and storytelling expert, she has the rare ability to strategize at a high level, execute the details (usually with a meticulous Gantt chart), and build trust and a collaborative spirit within teams.

You can find her work at her website, and connect via Substack, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook.

MELISSA FORD

Melissa Ford is a social media amplifier, content creator, strategist, storyteller, and idea pollinator with 17 years of experience in online writing, data, and digital ad design. She uses a blend of predictive analytics, social listening, marketing tactics, and algorithm watching to optimize web content, social copy, and ads with an eye toward budget efficiency. Her goal is to get people sold on new ideas or products. She earned her MFA from University of Massachusetts – Amherst.