Top Women in Marketing Awards 2026

Chief Marketing Officer

UNICEF USA

Shelley Diamond connects marketing strategy to human action

At UNICEF USA, Shelley Diamond has rebuilt marketing around a simple conviction: Clear, human stories can strengthen trust, invite action and connect a global humanitarian mission to the daily concerns of people across the United States in a crowded information environment.

Diamond shifted attention from familiar legacy images to frontline workers whose resourcefulness, urgency and practical solutions show how humanitarian teams respond with courage and clarity when children face conflict, displacement and disrupted essential services.

That reframing gave UNICEF USA a fuller public identity, linking a familiar history to current work that protects children, supports learning and delivers urgent help during emergencies for audiences across the country. During COVID-19, Diamond redirected marketing, communications and fundraising to answer vaccine questions, counter false information, support remote learning and address unequal access to technology during a period of worldwide uncertainty. Diamond also reimagined the long-running Trick-or-Treat campaign as a virtual fundraising experience, creating practical entry points for families, corporate partners and first-time supporters who had not participated before.

Earlier at Young & Rubicam, Diamond led the integration of 10 agencies, helping global clients coordinate campaigns across regions and specialties as media habits and consumer expectations changed quickly. As president of the New York office and chief client officer, Diamond expanded digital expertise, built cross-discipline collaboration, and guided established brands through change while improving daily operations. With Y&R Inspire Change, Diamond brought corporations and nonprofits together around campaigns that connected communication choices to public engagement and social progress that communities could understand and support.

Diamond has also built a durable legacy through mentorship, serving women leaders and emerging professionals through W.O.M.E.N. in America, Enactus, Vital Voices and the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Mentorship Program. Across agency, corporate and nonprofit settings, Diamond has shown that disciplined marketing can build trust, clarify urgent needs and give people meaningful ways to help.

SVP & CMO, AI, Networking, Collaboration

Cisco

Aruna Ravichandran turns complex technology into customer value

At Cisco, Aruna Ravichandran connects engineering insight, market strategy and business growth across AI, networking and collaboration. Ravichandran began as a software engineer and built a career that helps technical teams explain complex innovation in ways customers can use. That foundation guides Ravichandran’s work with product teams, sales leaders and customers.

When Webex faced stronger competition and an outdated market perception, Ravichandran led a rebrand that positioned the platform around inclusive collaboration and practical customer outcomes. Ravichandran also expanded WebexOne from a virtual gathering into a commercial platform that connects product demonstrations, customer conversations and sales opportunities. Across the business, Ravichandran has treated marketing as a driver of demand and customer confidence, rather than a communications function detached from revenue.

As Cisco expanded its focus on AI and networking, Ravichandran helped sharpen the company’s message around secure infrastructure for the AI era. Ravichandran created forums that brought customers, industry leaders and technology experts into a larger conversation about responsible AI adoption. That approach gave Cisco a stronger role in a fast-moving market without reducing the discussion to a product launch.

Galaxy Mode showed how Ravichandran puts that approach into practice. Ravichandran brought marketing, engineering and product teams together to build an in-product experience for Cisco AI Assistant capabilities across Meraki and ThousandEyes within six weeks. The effort gave network engineers a direct way to explore multimodal input, deeper reasoning and agentic troubleshooting, contributing to a 76.7% lift in monthly active users.

Ravichandran also builds teams around curiosity, inclusion and psychological safety. Through mentoring, advisory work and internal programs that celebrate courageous thinking, Ravichandran creates room for more people to shape technology’s future. That leadership strengthens both the work and the people responsible for it.

CEO & Founder

EvolveMKD

Megan Driscoll builds a purpose-led model for modern marketing

With a mission to build an independent agency around intention, inclusion and endurance, Megan Driscoll founded EvolveMKD and established a leadership model that puts purpose, integrity and close client partnership at the center of the agency’s work. Driscoll has turned that vision into a durable business that relies on senior leadership, repeat relationships and accountable counsel rather than the distance that can define larger holding-company structures. That approach gives clients direct access to experienced counsel, creates room for deliberate decisions and makes accountability a daily operating practice across every assignment.

Facing rapid changes in marketing and healthcare communications, Driscoll chose to reshape EvolveMKD’s model before client demand required change, broadening the firm’s capabilities across digital services, research, analytics and artificial intelligence. Driscoll also launched BrandWave and Phys-Influencers, proprietary programs that give clients sharper audience insight and credible physician-led content while meeting compliance needs across regulated markets. BrandWave helped a contraception brand reframe consumer strategy around hormone-conscious and efficacy-focused audiences, guiding a more informed approach to resource allocation and clearer messages for each group. Phys-Influencers identifies and vets medical professionals, matches medical professionals with brands and builds authentic content that paid support can extend without sacrificing medical authority.

Driscoll shared this approach with peers through industry panels and executive forums, arguing for precise audience strategy and a stronger role for communications in business decision-making, where leaders confront changing audience expectations. By connecting strategy with operational change, Driscoll has prepared the firm to respond to evolving client needs without abandoning the relationships that built the firm’s reputation in fast-moving markets.

Beyond client work, Driscoll directs EvolveMKD’s business success toward more than $1.4 million in charitable giving, workforce-readiness workshops with Safe Horizon and Bottomless Closet and a scholarship and paid internship for underrepresented students that expand access to career development.

Chief Marketing Officer

Purdue University

Kelly Hiller makes marketing a strategic force

Facing demographic change, public skepticism and fast-moving technology, Kelly Hiller, chief marketing officer of Purdue University, moved marketing beyond a communications service and built it as an institutional capability that advances reputation, enrollment interest, partnerships and public engagement. Her approach gives university leaders a clearer way to connect research, innovation and educational opportunity with audiences whose expectations have changed, while making brand decisions answer larger institutional needs rather than isolated campaign goals.

To make that shift durable, Hiller created Purdue Brand Studio, an in-house agency that brings strategy, creative work and performance measurement into one operation aligned with university priorities and accountable for results. The studio helps teams replace disconnected messages with campaigns that carry Purdue’s expertise into cultural conversations, news coverage and digital experiences, creating a consistent public account of why university work matters beyond campus. Through a collaboration with Sunnie, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine platform, Hiller’s team placed education within a wider cultural conversation and generated 1.35 billion impressions while directing interested audiences toward curated course offerings.

For the Indianapolis launch, the “Paint the Town Gold” activation turned a campus expansion into a citywide experience, inviting local audiences to see Purdue as an active contributor to the region’s future. At the same time, the “This Is Where” campaign joined research, partnerships and innovation under a shared account of practical impact, giving internal teams and outside audiences a clearer common language. Hiller also introduced AI-supported workflows that speed work, reduce outside costs and create room for staff to focus on stronger ideas, better decisions and sustained relationships across a decentralized campus.

That discipline has made marketing central to Purdue’s ability to explain public value, build trust and connect people to ideas, experiences and opportunities that shape continued growth.

Chief Strategy & Change Officer

Ruder Finn

Rachel Spielman guides change through people and purpose

Across more than 25 years at Ruder Finn, Rachel Spielman has shaped the agency’s growth by pairing strategic change with a clear commitment to people, values and useful client outcomes in a changing market. As chief strategy and change officer, Spielman leads an agenda that brings technology, data, artificial intelligence and human creativity into closer alignment with the agency’s daily client work.

During a U.S. Management Committee listening tour, Spielman gathered perspectives across agency practices and offices, identified barriers to innovation and connected new capabilities to clients’ changing needs. That work led to rf.StoryLab, rf.Voices and the AI Accelerator, which expand Ruder Finn’s approach to storytelling, influence and responsible AI adoption while creating new paths for client engagement and collaboration for clients facing complex change.

Rather than treating AI as a tool reserved for specialists, Spielman built conditions for staff members to question, test and use it with confidence in daily work. Spielman inspired an AI learning series, championed reverse mentoring and advanced executive and AI training for emerging talent, helping teams share expertise across generations, practices and levels of experience. Agencywide conversations with CEO Kathy Bloomgarden, speaker events and David Finn Awards further encourage employees to contribute ideas, learn from diverse voices and reward curiosity over hierarchy.

Spielman also extends that stewardship beyond the agency by establishing David Finn Day, supporting the David Finn Archive’s donation to the Museum of Public Relations and participating in the Institute for Public Relations’ ELEVATE and Page Society’s Page-Up. Inside Ruder Finn, Spielman mentors early-career talent, offers context for difficult decisions and helps colleagues build confidence, sound judgment and responsibility for the work they carry forward. By preserving lessons from the profession’s past and equipping practitioners for its future, Spielman strengthens relationships, judgment and shared responsibility that help public relations adapt with integrity.

Head of Communications

Sui Foundation

Leslie Ankney makes financial infrastructure accessible

At the Sui Foundation, Leslie Ankney directs media, content and brand strategy for Sui, a financial infrastructure platform that aims to make moving money as simple as sending a message, while bringing a technical story into mainstream finance and technology conversations. Rather than position Sui as a cryptocurrency curiosity, Ankney built narratives for institutional audiences, linking product launches and partnerships to practical questions about payments, access and trust.

Through coverage in Fortune, The Information, TheStreet and Schwab Network, Ankney placed Sui in outlets that inform institutional decisions and explained partnerships with Franklin Templeton, VanEck, Robinhood and Google for readers beyond blockchain. For Hashi, Sui’s Bitcoin finance infrastructure, Ankney coordinated a shared launch narrative with institutional partners, including BitGo, Ledger, FalconX, Bullish and Erebor Bank, focusing public attention on secure, transparent ways institutions can activate Bitcoin holdings.

Ankney also shaped messages for SEC-approved exchange-traded products from 21Shares, Grayscale and Canary Capital, and for stablecoin launches involving Stripe, Bridge and Ethena, translating complicated financial infrastructure into accessible language. That clarity supported the BTCfi narrative, which Ankney coined to connect Sui infrastructure with Bitcoin-based finance; Bitcoin-linked activity then accounted for more than 25% of value on Sui.

To extend a lean communications operation, Ankney deployed AI tools for research, media monitoring, message testing and audience segmentation, giving the team faster insight while maintaining a clear editorial standard. The workflows helped Ankney test which explanations could reach finance, payments and technology audiences without forcing readers to understand the mechanics of blockchain before they could grasp the value. By pairing institutional credibility with plain-language storytelling, Ankney has helped Sui engage audiences that shape adoption, investment and public understanding of emerging financial infrastructure. That work treats communications as a bridge between technical builders and the people who decide whether emerging systems deserve attention, confidence and practical use in the market.

Chief Marketing Officer, North America

Schneider Electric

Abby Gabriel builds a marketing engine for growth

At Schneider Electric, Abby Gabriel directs North America marketing as a commercial growth function, connecting brand investment, digital customer experience and demand generation to priorities that guide long-term business decisions across a complex market landscape. Gabriel draws on experience in channel marketing, sales operations, communications and strategic marketing to turn broad corporate imperatives into practical programs for customers, partners and internal commercial teams.

Rather than letting separate functions pursue disconnected goals, Gabriel built an integrated model that brings brand, content, digital experience, communications and demand generation together around shared plans and accountability across regional and national efforts. The model gives commercial teams a clearer path from market education to customer engagement, pipeline development and revenue, while giving marketers a common view of audience needs and campaign performance at every stage.

Gabriel makes measurement central to campaign planning, investment choices and follow-up, using analytics to test messages, sharpen audience strategies and direct resources toward work that supports business outcomes with commercial leaders. AI-enabled capabilities and personalization help marketing teams deliver more relevant experiences throughout the customer journey, improve conversion opportunities and strengthen the link between digital activity and commercial action for priority audiences.

A North America brand repositioning raised unaided awareness from 2% to 40%, broadening Schneider Electric’s visibility and relevance among customers, partners and industry influencers in key markets. Gabriel also expands executive thought leadership around energy transition, electrification and sustainability, giving decision-makers a clear connection to Schneider Electric’s expertise in digital transformation.

Strategic activations, innovation summits and partnerships bring the company’s narrative into direct customer conversations, reinforce credibility and support relationships that extend beyond individual campaigns in priority sectors. By developing modern skills in AI, digital storytelling and customer-focused design, Gabriel prepares a high-performing marketing organization to respond quickly, collaborate closely and build durable growth across the business.

Founder and CEO

Better Together Agency

Catharine Montgomery builds safer AI for mission-driven communications

At Better Together Agency, Catharine Montgomery leads communications work for mission-driven organizations and builds tools that help public-interest teams use AI with greater care. As a Black woman founder and CEO, Montgomery pairs campaign strategy with a direct response to systems that can repeat harmful assumptions and leave communities out of the conversation.

Rather than wait for platform providers to address those risks, Montgomery created TogetherAI, a private platform that trains only on an organization’s own content. TogetherAI requires no prompting and checks material for bias involving race, gender, age, disability, income and geography before teams distribute messages.

Montgomery has conducted and published annual audits of generative AI bias, used findings to develop the forthcoming survey, “Building Consumer Trust: Addressing Bias in Generative AI for Brands,” and secured enterprise security certifications for TogetherAI. That research moves AI governance from abstract debate into practical safeguards for organizations that communicate with diverse audiences.

A friend’s search for language about Indigenous people and exploration showed the need when a widely used AI tool suggested America existed before Indigenous people. TogetherAI returned language that corrected the historical error and accurately reflected Indigenous presence.

Clients use the platform to speed research, policy development and patient communications while maintaining review for biased language across audiences. A health care client produced patient updates 30 percent faster, and Better Together Agency applied the same care across sustainability, ocean restoration, food standards in schools, education equity, disability rights and women’s health.

Montgomery strengthened that practice through the CAIDP AI Policy Clinic, where Montgomery studied AI policy and led a cohort team. Presentations at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, the AI for Nonprofits and Advocacy Summit, PR Boutiques International, LinkedIn Live and a panel with Google DeepMind help teams act on the research before bias reaches the people they serve.

Vice President, Communications and Marketing

PCL Construction

Alison Tucker builds an AI-enabled marketing engine for construction

In construction, marketing teams often work as decentralized support groups and fragmented systems slow proposal development, obscure client insight and limit the time available for strategic work. At PCL Construction, Alison Tucker has recast marketing and communications as an integrated in-house function that connects corporate strategy, business priorities and client needs across Canada, the United States and Australia.

Tucker built a collaborative operating model, expanded specialist capabilities and gave teams shared processes that bring marketing into complex pursuit planning from early strategy through final client interviews. This structure lets teams use evidence, coordinate messages and shape each interaction around client priorities rather than treat marketing as a last-step service after decisions already take shape.

Central to that change, Tucker led the design and implementation of SAMI, a proprietary platform that unifies information from several core business systems and gives proposal teams a reliable, current source for client and project intelligence. Teams now retrieve and apply information in hours instead of spending days or weeks assembling materials, which frees marketers to develop sharper narratives and more relevant client positioning.

Tucker also accelerated adoption of Joist AI, which embeds generative AI in proposal workflows, supports compliance reviews and supplies analytics that help teams strengthen pursuit strategies. Rather than confine AI to experimentation, Tucker established practical routines that place the technology within daily marketing and communications work while maintaining a focus on informed human judgment.

The approach improves speed, consistency and collaboration across functions, helping PCL Construction present clearer qualifications and respond to clients with greater precision. By linking people, systems and strategy, Tucker has created a model that advances enterprise growth and offers the construction industry a practical path for marketing innovation at a time when technology adoption remains uneven across the sector.

Senior Director, Advertising

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Popsy Akin turns advertising into a strategic growth engine

At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Popsy Akin reshaped advertising from a campaign function into a driver of patient access, brand strength and organizational growth. Akin guided the team through budget pressure and shifting market conditions while keeping decisions tied to audience needs and institutional priorities. In 2024, Akin helped drive 3% year-over-year growth in new patient visit requests by shifting media investment toward the periods and channels that needed more support.

Rather than preserve an existing plan, Akin assessed performance, acted quickly and redirected resources to strengthen results during the latter part of the year. Akin also brought in a new media buying partner and created savings that expanded paid media support and helped fund other marketing work. That approach gave Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center more flexibility in a flat-budget environment while protecting the discipline required for responsible stewardship.

Through sharper creative strategy and focused media execution, Akin helped strengthen familiarity, consideration and key brand perceptions among audiences exposed to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center advertising. Akin built momentum across consecutive years by connecting campaign insights to practical adjustments in media placement, messaging and investment. The work advanced a clear goal: help more people understand Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s expertise and consider its care when cancer creates urgent, complex decisions.

Beyond campaign delivery, Akin serves as Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s primary contact with the ANA and brings useful resources, including AI training, back to the organization. Akin also led agency reviews, including a multicultural agency review that required close coordination with sourcing partners and internal stakeholders. By creating trust, advocating for team members and investing in mentorship, Akin has helped colleagues grow into stronger marketers who can extend that impact across the organization.

Vice President, Marketing & Communications

U.S. Soccer Foundation

Jennifer Arnold turns soccer’s cultural moment into community action

As vice president of marketing and communications and an Executive Leadership Team member, Jennifer Arnold guided the U.S. Soccer Foundation through growing attention surrounding the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Arnold built a long-term marketing strategy that directs global interest toward local opportunity, positioning the U.S. Soccer Foundation as a connector among young people, mentors, schools and soccer communities. Through the Soccer Does platform, Arnold framed soccer as a source of mentorship, connection and opportunity, then linked brand storytelling to programming that gives families clearer paths to participate. The approach gave corporate partners, media outlets and community leaders a shared message, while keeping young people’s needs at the center of every campaign decision and connecting national visibility with neighborhood-level participation.

Rather than treating the tournament as a short-lived publicity opportunity, Arnold secured expanded collaboration with adidas, Telemundo and FOX Sports, placing the U.S. Soccer Foundation in national conversations about soccer’s role in American communities and creating useful opportunities for brand partners to connect public support with direct community service. Arnold also secured promotional inventory through broadcast partners, creating repeated national exposure and media interest without relying on a large paid campaign or separating public attention from program goals. Across seven U.S. World Cup host cities, Arnold led activations that brought schools, professional athletes and local residents together around access, inclusion and coach mentorship.

To extend that work online, Arnold led the Yes, Coach! campaign, combining practical stories, technology and performance marketing to recruit volunteer coach-mentors across the country and giving prospective volunteers a clear route from interest to local service in their communities. The campaign moved audiences from awareness to registration, while Arnold’s digital strategy increased the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s social engagement, website traffic and supporter acquisition. By aligning corporate partnerships, media distribution and community programming, Arnold created a repeatable approach that turns cultural momentum into sustained support for young people and the adults who guide them.

Senior Director, Brand Marketing

Keesler Federal Credit Union

Pam Belk builds a unified brand for community connection

During a major acquisition, Pam Belk gave Keesler Federal Credit Union a unified brand system that connected branch experiences, digital channels and community outreach around trust, accessibility and local relevance for members navigating change. As senior director of brand marketing, Belk aligned established locations and incoming branches while preserving the familiar presence members value across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

Through a rebuilt brand journey, Belk introduced a style guide that gave marketing teams, branch employees and community partners clear standards for language, visuals and member experience. The guide replaced fragmented messages with a consistent public presence, gave staff practical tools for explaining change and strengthened communication across advertising, online information and in-person conversations.

To make financial marketing more personal, Belk led the “Live Your Way” campaign across digital, social, broadcast and in-person activations, with stories designed for local audiences rather than generic product messages. Belk also guided Keesler Federal’s initial creator partnership, using trusted regional voices to expand awareness, generate more than 2.4 million impressions, and invite conversation beyond traditional financial advertising.

Beyond individual campaigns, Belk built the credit union’s first comprehensive social media and digital strategy, creating a long-term plan for purposeful audience growth, engagement and brand expansion. The roadmap gave teams a shared way to choose content, respond to community interests, connect marketing activity to member needs and maintain a consistent voice across changing platforms.

Across departments, Belk convened colleagues around the brand, linking marketing, digital, branch operations and community outreach so each member interaction could reinforce a common promise. By pairing disciplined execution with local storytelling, Belk strengthened Keesler Federal’s role as a trusted neighbor that helps communities navigate financial decisions with greater confidence.

Chief Marketing Officer

818 Tequila

Kathleen Braine builds brands through cultural participation

At the intersection of culture and commerce, Kathleen Braine builds emerging consumer brands around experiences that invite participation rather than passive attention. Across a 15-year career in spirits, lifestyle and wellness, Braine has paired audience insight with commercial discipline, helping brands meet changing expectations and build lasting relevance.

Early roles at Edelman, Samsung and Anheuser-Busch gave Braine practical experience in digital marketing, communications, brand strategy, media relations and consumer campaigns across fast-moving national businesses. While guiding BABE Wine and Beyond Beer brands, Braine developed a repeatable consumer-first approach that asks brands to join cultural conversations through useful experiences, credible partnerships and community.

At 818 Tequila, Braine joined as vice president and head of marketing in 2021, and moved a celebrity-backed startup beyond conventional spirits promotion. Braine created 818 Outpost, Tailgate with 818 and a national College Tour, linking the brand with hospitality, fashion, music and creator culture for younger legal-drinking-age consumers.

That approach helped 818 Blanco grow 18% year over year as broader tequila demand slowed, showing that cultural connection can drive category-defying momentum. Braine also helped secure a strategic partnership with Sazerac that brought investment and exclusive U.S. sales and distribution support, expanding 818’s national foundation.

At Khloud Foods, Braine directs marketing for a wellness snack brand and expands retail access through a clear consumer story, close commercial coordination and retailer relationships. Today, Braine serves as chief marketing officer and head of commercial strategy at 818 Tequila while serving as chief marketing officer at Khloud Foods, directing marketing, communications, partnerships, experiential programs and growth plans. With lean teams, Braine develops agile systems, gives emerging talent meaningful responsibility and connects creative decisions to business goals. That model gives both companies a disciplined way to turn audience understanding into relevant experiences, stronger partnerships and durable growth in crowded consumer markets for years ahead.

Director of Marketing Communications

Hyundai Motor America

Kate Fabian connects vehicle launches to family needs

At a time when family buyers lacked a spacious three-row electric SUV built around shared travel, Kate Fabian shaped marketing that presented the IONIQ 9 as a place for connection, not simply transportation. Fabian directed “Space to Connect,” a national campaign that paired Hyundai’s future-facing electric vehicle with a people-centered message about welcoming passengers in every row and clarified how flexible seating could support both daily routines and group experiences.

That approach translated vehicle space and family-friendly features into scenes of community and social interaction, giving consumers a clear reason to consider an emerging category on human terms rather than relying on specifications alone. Across brand strategy, media planning, dealer advertising, experiential work, branded content and social media, Fabian aligned the launch with Hyundai’s broader promise to serve modern families in national and regional markets.

For the all-new Palisade Hybrid SUV, Hyundai’s flagship SUV, Fabian built a phased plan around three major professional football moments and tailored creative to different audiences to build anticipation, sustain attention and support dealer conversations. “All That and More,” featuring Parker Posey at the 2025 season kickoff, used range, technology, safety, design and premium capability to challenge expectations for the vehicle.

“Make Everyday Feel Epic,” featuring John Krasinski during the conference championship games, framed Palisade capability and luxury through the energy of an adventure film. Before the Super Bowl, “Super Bowl Epic Picks” invited Instagram fans to predict outcomes and connected participation to a $1 million donation for pediatric cancer research.

Fabian balanced product storytelling with timely cultural moments, giving each phase a distinct purpose while keeping Palisade’s premium positioning consistent across channels. More than 20 years of experience across automotive brands, global events and consumer marketing informed an approach that made advanced vehicles feel relevant, accessible and personal for families navigating changing needs.

Director, Brand and Media

EY

Brittney Frank builds an integrated brand and media presence for EY Americas

At EY Americas, Brittney Frank directs brand and media work that connects a complex professional services organization with audiences seeking clear, relevant expertise in crowded, rapidly changing markets and professional decisions. EY Americas expanded Frank’s responsibilities as Frank brought greater integration, discipline and strategic focus to prominent brand platforms and the media systems that support them across the Americas.

For EY US, Frank reshapes signature programs from creative platforms through storytelling, formats and market execution, connecting business priorities with clear audience needs at every stage for client and market audiences. Frank oversees content, production and promotion across a broad portfolio, then uses performance insights to refine campaign choices, strengthen the EY master brand and elevate sector and service priorities. Rather than treating media as a final distribution step, Frank designs channel strategies around audience context and creates platform-native experiences that offer useful information in the places audiences engage and act on timely perspectives.

Within EY’s matrixed media environment, Frank’s team provides strategic direction to more than 20 business units, helping separate activations reinforce one coherent story and differentiated market presence across the organization. Frank coordinates creative, brand and media teams, aligning audience reach with campaign messages, shared standards and the larger promise that EY brings to the market across programs. This operating model gives teams room to address sector-specific needs and market conditions while maintaining a recognizable experience across campaigns, channels, audience touchpoints and planning cycles.

To improve the work behind the work, Frank embeds AI in planning, briefing and quality checks, increasing capacity for higher-value work while improving creative alignment and reducing friction in the campaign development process for teams working at speed. Experience across business-to-business communications, issue-based marketing, consumer products, retail and brand leadership informs Frank’s focus on practical innovation, distinctive storytelling and accountable results across a changing marketing landscape.

Assistant Director, Creative + Brand

Norfolk Southern

Emily Murray connects brand credibility to commercial action

Amid heightened public scrutiny and industry complexity, Emily Murray reshaped Norfolk Southern’s marketing into a unified effort that connects brand credibility with commercial action. As assistant director of Creative and Brand, Murray led the company’s first unified brand campaign, creating a consistent presence for customers, communities and employees while giving business teams a clearer foundation for outreach and an accessible narrative for audiences navigating a changing transportation industry.

That campaign paired creative direction with practical pathways for prospective customers, increasing inbound contacts 72% year over year and showing how a stronger brand can support demand. Murray also directs paid media strategy, guides the team behind it and ties investment decisions to audience needs, campaign performance and business priorities across channels and markets.

Integrated work for intermodal services and targeted industries brought brand and demand generation into one operating system, rather than treating visibility and conversion as separate goals for teams that once worked from separate plans. By setting clear expectations for agencies, Murray asks partners to use audience insight, sharpen ideas and deliver work that serves both immediate commercial needs and long-term trust. Murray establishes measurement plans before launches, reviews results with stakeholders and adjusts creative, media and landing-page decisions so marketing teams can learn quickly without losing sight of the audience experience.

Inside Norfolk Southern, Murray brings the same discipline to an employee engagement campaign that will reach employees through paid media and relevant messages. The effort addresses a timely need for stronger connection, reinforcing pride in daily work, confidence in the company’s direction and belief in the value employees create. Through hands-on leadership, Murray turns strategy into execution that helps Norfolk Southern act more consistently and respond more clearly during a period when trust, consistency and accountability matter.

Head of IT

Rational 360

Jolene Rencher builds a scalable technology foundation

Rapid growth required Rational 360 to expand the company’s technology backbone, integrate new capabilities and protect dependable daily operations that support client work, without asking employees to absorb avoidable disruption. Jolene Rencher met that need by designing systems that connect more than 115 employees across teams, locations and workflows while preserving the speed, care and accountability clients expect.

For artificial intelligence, Rencher assessed multiple large language model platforms, defined a companywide strategy and launched a central AI Resource Hub, giving employees one place to find approved tools, practical guidance and standards for responsible use. Rencher paired the rollout with practical policies and hands-on training, helping teams apply new technology with confidence while keeping client work accurate, responsible and consistent across disciplines and projects.

Enterprise clients also require reliable safeguards across a growing mix of platforms, data practices and internal processes, especially when projects demand close coordination among specialized teams. Rencher led SOC 2 Type II audit readiness, established security and compliance standards and built a framework that helps Rational 360 pursue complex engagements while giving project teams clear requirements instead of unnecessary obstacles.

At the same time, Rencher modernized the infrastructure that links creative, digital and client teams, addressing system friction before it could delay delivery, complicate handoffs or pull staff away from strategic work. The modernization turned technical and compliance requirements into useful routines, rather than leaving employees to navigate disconnected tools, unclear expectations or uneven technology adoption.

The resulting foundation supports continued expansion, strengthens client trust and lets teams devote more attention to the creative, analytical and relationship-driven work that advances client goals as needs evolve. By making secure technology practical in everyday operations, Rencher has given Rational 360 a durable way to innovate, collaborate and serve clients with confidence in coming years.

Marketing Director

Sunstates Security

Meredith Rutledge builds a disciplined marketing engine

During a period of rapid change at Sunstates Security, marketing director Meredith Rutledge has built a disciplined marketing function that supports national expansion while keeping the brand credible with senior business leaders, prospective clients and frontline employees. Rutledge directs organic search, paid media, content, email and social channels with close attention to distinct audience needs, responsible spending and business goals that sales and operations teams can use. At a national security firm growing 25% annually, Rutledge gives a midsize brand the clarity, consistency and market focus needed to compete for attention against much larger companies with far deeper resources.

Recruitment created an urgent marketing challenge because every client commitment depended on a dependable pipeline of qualified security professionals in a field marked by persistent turnover and demanding staffing needs. Rutledge rebuilt recruitment marketing around digital outreach that reached hard-to-fill roles and hiring events, then led the design and launch of external and internal career sites during a companywide platform transition. Those efforts strengthened Sunstates Security’s labor-market reputation, simplified the path from first contact to onboarding and gave candidates clearer reasons to explore opportunities with the company.

Rutledge also moved Sunstates Security into large trade shows for the first time, turning appearances in New Orleans and Las Vegas into brand experiences that invited conversations, encouraged return visits and created meaningful follow-up opportunities. Custom claw machines and an adoptable-pet partnership gave attendees a welcoming point of connection in a sector that often communicates through formality, technical language and distance. During Sunstates Security’s first acquisition, Rutledge directed communications and digital integration, helping teams maintain an authentic, consistent brand experience while the organization absorbed a consequential business change. Rutledge pairs strategic direction with hands-on execution, managing search visibility, content, photography, marketing materials and internal culture initiatives that connect growth priorities with the daily experiences of clients, candidates and employees.

Senior Vice President, Communications

CardWorks Financial Group

Crystal Wright builds a visible, connected CardWorks Financial Group

When Crystal Wright joined CardWorks Financial Group as senior vice president of communications, the company needed a clearer public identity and stronger connections with key audiences. Wright applied finance and communications experience to create a practical strategy that aligned brand visibility with business growth, employee engagement and customer trust.

Rather than rely on broad, standardized tactics, Wright listened to employees, assessed stakeholder needs and refined messaging around the company’s purpose, performance and values. The resulting plan gave employees, customers, partners, regulators and media contacts consistent information while creating clear accountability across communications efforts.

Early in the role, Wright led the transition to CardWorks Financial Group and directed refreshed brands for CardWorks Servicing and Carson Smithfield. Wright also developed a visual identity that presented the company as an integrated financial services platform grounded in risk management, operational excellence and customer service.

To extend that identity beyond company channels, Wright built an employee advocacy program that prepared senior leaders to share company news, respond to journalist opportunities and contribute informed perspectives on LinkedIn. The initial leadership group reached 100% participation, demonstrating strong internal readiness to help carry CardWorks Financial Group’s message into industry conversations.

Wright also launched an external communications function to build media relationships, pursue speaking opportunities and place company expertise in relevant discussions. A redesigned website, mobile underwriting and credit card origination research, and CardWorks Weekly gave the organization stronger tools to explain its work and keep employees informed.

Through these efforts, Wright turned communications into an active business function that supports the company’s evolving identity. CardWorks Financial Group now has a foundation for sustained visibility, stronger internal alignment and more direct engagement with the audiences that shape its future.

Senior Director, Editorial

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Katie Boyle Sobolik connects cancer science with the people it can help

At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Katie Boyle Sobolik directs editorial strategy that translates complex cancer science into accurate, compassionate information for patients, caregivers and families navigating urgent, life-altering decisions. In that role, Sobolik has reshaped the center’s flagship storytelling around scientific rigor, human experience and practical questions people face during cancer care. Rather than treating institutional communications as a series of announcements, Sobolik builds narratives that explain what changed, why the science matters and where readers can find credible guidance.

Across MSK News and the annual report, Sobolik guides reporting, editing and presentation to connect research advances with the people whose lives those advances can change. In 2025, Sobolik helped launch Saved by Science, a YouTube initiative that reveals how basic and translational research drives clinical progress and gives general audiences a clear path from laboratory discovery to patient care, often long before research reaches standard care.

For institutional email newsletters, Sobolik built a reader-centered approach that expanded subscriber bases and produced open rates above 50%, showing sustained audience interest in clear, useful health information when readers need context most. Sobolik’s team also created reporting that supported national features on Today and Good Morning America, carrying reliable accounts of treatment, research and support resources into homes across the country.

Outside the newsroom, Sobolik led by example as a top departmental fundraiser for Cycle for Survival in 2025, connecting personal effort to research funding and the center’s mission. Colleagues rely on Sobolik as a thought partner who strengthens messages across teams, safeguards accuracy and keeps patients and caregivers at the center of every story, from digital channels to major institutional publications. By pairing journalistic standards with accessible language, Sobolik helps Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center communicate progress without overstating promise, giving audiences information they can use with confidence during difficult, deeply personal moments.

Executive Director of Strategy and Growth

Purdue University

Katie Ellis turns cultural insight into Purdue University engagement

At Purdue University, Katie Ellis directs marketing strategy for Purdue Brand Studio, turning audience research into content that connects the institution’s priorities with people’s interests and wider cultural conversations. Ellis guides lead generation, national partnerships and public activations through a process that gives in-house teams the focus, discipline and measurable outcomes of a leading agency.

Before a concept moves forward, Ellis studies behavior, feedback and research, then identifies questions and motivations that can shape useful stories for people considering education, partnership or discovery. This approach gives Purdue a clear editorial point of view and replaces routine promotion with work that invites curiosity, builds trust and prompts action across digital channels and public events.

Through Purdue’s partnership with Sunnie, the Gen Z media platform from Hello Sunshine, Ellis helped frame the university as a supporter of women and girls in STEM in ways that connected aspiration with practical opportunity. The initiative generated 1.35 billion impressions while directing audiences toward stories and curated course offerings that made Purdue’s expertise more accessible and encouraged deeper exploration.

For the “Stranger Things” culture campaign, Ellis translated Purdue’s connection to Hawkins, Indiana, into nostalgic creative and current storytelling with a distinctly Midwestern sense of possibility. Ellis helped bring the campaign from social content to a high-visibility activation at the Indy Classic men’s college basketball doubleheader, extending a cultural moment into an in-person brand experience for students, fans and families.

For “This Is Where,” Ellis shaped content that positioned Purdue as an innovation partner for corporate and academic audiences and created useful entry points for prospective collaborators. Across these initiatives, Ellis has shown how a university can respond to culture with purpose, translate attention into engagement and strengthen Purdue’s reputation through relevant, audience-centered storytelling for audiences around the world.

Director of Content Marketing

Unisys

Carol Long builds client stories into business momentum

At Unisys, Long turns complex technology work into clear client narratives that give sales teams and prospective clients a stronger way to begin conversations. As director of content marketing, Long guides the words and ideas that shape Unisys.com, social channels, executive communications and conference presentations, from web pages to executive moments when stakes run high. The work connects technical capability to operational pressures that clients face, helping audiences understand how Unisys can solve urgent problems without asking them to decode internal language.

Long built content operations from the ground up, creating editorial workflows, brand voice guidance and creative briefs that help a small team produce consistent work across channels and customer decision points and give every contributor a practical path from idea to publication. That structure gives marketing, sales and subject experts a shared foundation, while Long mentors writers and helps colleagues apply AI with purpose, care and judgment across the organization.

Through Behind the Breakthroughs, Long shifted client storytelling from a record of completed work into a practical tool for showing prospective customers what transformation can look like and how technology investments can support business goals. When Benjamin Moore faced a data center shutdown, Long’s team framed the cloud migration of mission-critical systems around the brand’s challenge, the Unisys response and the people closest to the work and the urgency of keeping operations running. Long helped select real painting contractors rather than actors, grounding the campaign in the experience of people who depend on reliable technology and giving the story a credible human voice.

Long’s small team produced 795 content pieces, showing how disciplined systems, editorial care and clear priorities can expand output without losing audience trust. Days after launch, a leading manufacturer asked whether Unisys could deliver similar results, a response that reflects Long’s practice of listening closely, making technical value understandable and creating work that gives customers confidence to act.

Firm Enterprise Solutions Associate Director, Marketing

Deloitte

Cailin Rocco turns CEO storytelling into a leadership platform

At Deloitte’s Center for Strategy and Operations Leadership with the Deloitte Greenhouse, Cailin Rocco identified a gap in the Chief Executive Program’s approach to leadership content: CEOs needed stronger storytelling skills, and the program needed a more human way to share its own perspective on the role.

Rocco built a CEO Storytelling initiative that connected original research, executive thought leadership and a new video series designed for current and aspiring chief executives. The work positioned storytelling as a leadership practice that helps CEOs build trust, communicate change and create messages that employees, shareholders and external stakeholders remember. Rocco developed the strategic case, secured support and budget, partnered with Deloitte’s research team, managed vendors, guided filming and shaped a creative approach that moved beyond conventional executive interviews.

The companion article, “Why storytelling and leadership go hand in hand,” generated twice the average viewership and engagement of similar Deloitte articles. That response confirmed that executive audiences wanted practical guidance on a topic that often receives too little attention in leadership development. Rocco then created a concise interview format that invites CEOs to discuss formative jobs, leadership lessons and common misunderstandings about the chief executive role.

Rather than presenting polished corporate narratives, the videos give leaders space to speak with candor about their experiences, vulnerabilities and perspectives. Rocco designed the series to help future CEOs see the role through a more personal lens and understand how authentic communication can influence leadership impact. The format also gives Deloitte’s Chief Executive Program a repeatable framework for website content, events and Next Gen CEO programs.

Through the initiative, Rocco helped senior stakeholders see video storytelling as more than a promotional tool. The work turned static executive content into an accessible platform for learning, connection and reflection. By elevating the people behind the titles, Rocco created a model that helps leaders communicate more authentically while giving future executives a clearer view of the path ahead.

Chief Marketing Officer

Paysafe

Alisa Barber builds a unified growth strategy at Paysafe

At global payments company Paysafe, chief marketing officer Alisa Barber directs a marketing strategy that connects brand development, merchant growth, consumer engagement and data-informed decisions across a portfolio serving business customers and individual users. Barber guides a broad mandate to strengthen the Paysafe family of brands, help merchants adopt payment solutions and build relevance for wallet products worldwide.

Over the past year, Barber built on Paysafe’s corporate rebrand by refreshing PaysafeCard, PaysafeCash, Skrill and Neteller, creating a consistent experience for merchants and consumers across more than 120 countries. Barber guided the work through the constraints of a regulated industry, aligned distinct product identities with a common system and gave customer touchpoints a clearer, more reliable voice.

Within Paysafe, Barber centralized a global marketing organization across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America, bringing brand, demand generation, digital marketing and communications into closer partnership with sales teams and shared business priorities. The structure makes campaign planning more accountable, connects investment decisions to measurable business results and positions marketing as an active contributor to merchant acquisition, customer retention and Paysafe’s revenue roadmap.

Barber launched the Paysafe Podcast, creating a direct channel for company expertise, practical industry discussion and continuing conversation with audiences seeking clearer views of changing payment needs and digital commerce. Beyond market-facing work, Barber supports PayTech Women and Women in Payments, then mentors colleagues through the Paysafe Mentoring Program to expand access to guidance, leadership development and meaningful career connections. This commitment links business growth with a stronger professional community, helping emerging talent build confidence, practical knowledge and relationships that can sustain the payments industry through its next period of change.

SVP, Data Analytics

Crowley Webb

Andrea Berki-Nnuji builds a data-driven growth engine

At Crowley Webb, Andrea Berki-Nnuji transformed data analytics from a one-person function into an agencywide discipline that guides creative decisions, research priorities and client strategy. Berki-Nnuji brought scientific rigor into a traditionally art-driven environment while building a team that turns complex information into clear direction.

That strategy focused the department on high-demand research and services that meet changing client needs. The research project rate now runs 191% above the historical annual average, reflecting faster execution, stronger demand and a broader role for analytics across the agency. Rather than treating data as a final report, Berki-Nnuji positioned research as an active part of planning, creative development and business growth.

A key part of that evolution is Sample, a proprietary consumer panel that Berki-Nnuji conceived and built to give teams immediate access to audience insights. Berki-Nnuji led the work from early concept through the infrastructure, member dashboard and rewards system that support the platform today. Sample gives Crowley Webb the flexibility to test concepts at scale, gather rapid feedback and develop research without relying on outside recruitment resources.

Beyond the panel, Berki-Nnuji helped create Datalive, a research framework that connects emerging market questions with exclusive primary research and client-facing presentations. Through studies of sports sponsorship, food and beverage habits, brand loyalty and consumer behavior, the initiative gives partners practical guidance for crowded markets and shifting audience expectations. Datalive also gives agency teams a repeatable way to show how research can inform decisions before campaigns reach the market.

Inside the department, Berki-Nnuji pairs high expectations with encouragement and clear purpose. That leadership creates an energized team that treats analytics as both a technical discipline and a service to colleagues and clients. By building capabilities that make data faster, more accessible and more useful, Berki-Nnuji has made analytics central to how Crowley Webb plans for change and creates value.

Senior Director, Digital Advertising

Rational 360

Catherine Napoli builds a path from policy to public action

Complex policy debates can lose force when people lack a clear way to voice their views or see how individual action can influence a decision. As senior director of digital advertising at Rational 360, Catherine Napoli turns difficult policy objectives into practical calls to action that connect constituents with elected officials and give advocacy organizations a reliable path to mobilization.

During a national advocacy effort, Napoli translated a complicated policy fight into a coordinated digital program that built public pressure, sustained donor interest and gave supporters clear ways to participate. Advanced audience targeting, action-centered creative and disciplined performance reviews drove more than 250,000 constituent letters to elected officials, creating a visible channel for citizens to communicate directly with decision-makers.

Napoli designed the work as a full path from initial awareness to advocacy and financial support, so each message moved people toward participation without separating the public mission from funding needs. Napoli refined audience segments to lower acquisition costs and refreshed creative before fatigue slowed response, using campaign data to guide timely changes rather than relying on assumptions. Napoli also rebuilt landing pages to remove barriers, clarify the requested action and give supporters a simpler experience from first message to completed response.

Consumer marketing shaped Napoli’s audience-first method, which starts with what people need to understand, what may motivate them and what can make participation feel relevant to their lives. At Rational 360, Napoli extends an audience-first discipline beyond campaign delivery by mentoring junior staff, helping colleagues grow into larger responsibilities and improving reporting, optimization and operations with senior leadership. This combination of analytical rigor, practical execution and attention to the people behind each response helps advocacy campaigns convert interest into durable civic participation.

By pairing careful testing with clear, respectful communication, Napoli helps organizations reach audiences at decisive moments and helps constituents use their voices when public input matters most.

SVP, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

City of Hope

Nisha Morris turns cancer science into action

Clear, human-centered communication drives Nisha Morris’ work, translating cancer science into information that helps people seek care sooner and understand that treatment can bring hope. At City of Hope, Morris directs a national marketing strategy for advanced cancer research and treatment across the country.

With two million Americans expected to receive a cancer diagnosis this year, Morris frames complex discoveries around questions patients and families face, replacing fear with practical information about specialized expertise, treatment options, timely referrals and access to care close to home. That approach has connected more people to City of Hope care than at any earlier point in the organization’s history, expanded visibility for cancer specialists in national news outlets and supported new cancer centers in Southern California.

During a complex merger and acquisition, Morris built a unified brand and guided communications as hospitals moved from for-profit ownership to nonprofit, community-focused service, preserving clarity for patients, employees and local communities. An independent survey of medical experts reported broad national awareness of City of Hope, strengthening the organization’s ability to attract referrals from patients and health professionals seeking specialized cancer care.

Morris also builds teams that pair an ambitious standard with fast decisions, clear accountability and meaningful opportunities for colleagues to develop sound judgment, stronger skills and confidence. Earlier roles at National Security Agency, Providence and Dell prepared Morris to manage institutional change, explain high-stakes work in plain language and connect organizational strategy to public understanding.

Personal loss to cancer gives Morris’ work urgency, but Morris keeps the focus on patients, families and clinicians who need trustworthy information when a diagnosis, treatment decision or referral changes the course of care. By making scientific progress accessible and City of Hope’s care easier to find, Morris advances a public conversation that can guide people toward treatment, support and hope.

Chief Marketing Officer

Biscuitville Fresh Southern

Kristie Mitchell connects insight to growth at Biscuitville

Across Biscuitville’s menu, operations and leadership planning, Kristie Mitchell built a marketing function that connects guest insight with decisions, helping the business align its guest experience, growth priorities and daily execution. Mitchell serves on the Menu Innovation Executive Team, chairs the Project Management Office and contributes to the Leadership Team, giving Biscuitville a marketer’s perspective on daily execution and long-term growth.

In 2025, Mitchell led consumer research and market focus groups that clarified audience segments, shaped media choices, guided menu development and gave business leaders a stronger basis for planning. The research gave Biscuitville clearer direction for paid media and new products, while Mitchell created workflows and digital dashboards that provide executive stakeholders with timely access to campaign outcomes, guest data and decisions that require action.

When Biscuitville entered new communities, Mitchell coordinated advance media relations and opening-day activity, then directed local and trade coverage that built awareness, invited guest engagement and extended the launch story beyond restaurant openings. Mitchell later led the campaign for online ordering and a mobile app, using social media, digital advertising, out-of-home placements, broadcast and cable television, streaming and search to reach guests seeking convenience.

That effort generated more than 12,000 app downloads from launch through year-end, giving Biscuitville a growing direct channel for guests who value convenience. Mitchell also led Biscuitville’s initial value-menu campaign, balancing a sharper price point with the premium, made-from-scratch position that defines the brand and protects guest expectations.

The marketing team combined paid media, organic content and in-store materials, turning the limited offer into a permanent menu item that continues to draw incremental traffic. Across these efforts, Mitchell has made marketing a practical partner to operations, menu strategy and expansion, equipping Biscuitville to respond to guest needs, preserve its identity and build demand with disciplined decisions.

Senior Director of Marketing

Colliers Engineering & Design

Michele Ouimet Zorzi builds a unified brand through change

As Senior Director of Marketing and Principal, Michele Ouimet Zorzi guides marketing strategy, brand reputation and growth planning at Colliers Engineering & Design, bringing business discipline to an organization that has grown from a smaller practice into a national firm and helps leadership connect marketing investments to business goals.

Zorzi’s leadership turns complex organizational change into clear experiences, helping employees understand a shared purpose while helping clients see how integrated expertise can address consequential challenges in every office and discipline. That approach positions marketing as a central partner in expansion, integration and culture-building, rather than a separate service function that operates after decisions take shape and informs decisions early.

During the recent brand evolution, Zorzi united legacy engineering expertise with newer architecture services, reshaping the firm’s story around the clients, communities and projects that rely on Colliers Engineering & Design across the organization. Zorzi introduced inclusive language and a client-centered voice, moving communications beyond service descriptions to explain the practical outcomes that design and engineering work can create across the built environment for varied audiences. For the launch of new core values, Zorzi turned the annual town hall into an immersive internal campaign, directing in-house designers who used video and animation to make the mission immediate, memorable and actionable for employees nationwide.

A redesigned website extended that work, with clearer navigation and a disciplined voice that gives prospective clients, employees and partners a consistent experience at a pivotal brand touchpoint from first visit through direct engagement. Through repeated acquisitions, Zorzi has guided onboarding and rebranding while maintaining a 95% department talent retention rate, preserving institutional knowledge and team continuity during rapid change as teams adopt new practices and systems. By pairing brand direction with practical leadership, Zorzi equips colleagues to carry a cohesive promise into proposals, client conversations and work that advances the built environment, strengthening the organization from within and giving employees a durable framework for change.

Founder, CEO and CMO

Ljs Advisory

Lauren Burke expands access to strategic marketing leadership

Ambitious startups often lack the budget for senior marketing leadership, yet tactical work rarely equips a business to align product, brand and demand efforts for a major launch, market expansion or sustained competitive pressure. To close that gap, Lauren Burke built Ljs Advisory and placed strategic marketing leadership inside growth-stage technology businesses without the cost, delay or limited scope of a full-time executive hire, adapting each engagement to leadership priorities and operating realities. Through fractional CMO work and embedded partnership, Burke has helped 11 companies treat product launches, rebrands, new market entry and executive positioning as connected business decisions with clear commercial purpose across teams and channels.

Working with Prodigy, Burke shaped a clearer market story, led launches and introduced Marketing Investment Intelligence as a solution category that connects marketing budgets, campaign performance and more informed decision-making for prospective customers and internal teams. Burke also conceived and launched Max, an agentic AI chatbot that gives marketers an accessible way to improve budget use, campaign results and confidence in technology-driven decisions. Activations at SXSW, POSSIBLE and Cannes Lions carried the message into direct conversations with customers, partners, investors and industry peers at important industry moments.

After research and competitive analysis, Burke guided U.S. brand and product positioning for Dailymotion, then centered messaging on audience discovery and measurable outcomes to give buyers a distinct reason to engage in a crowded advertising technology market. For Becausal, Burke built a LinkedIn-led executive thought leadership program that connected Becausal leaders with audiences seeking practical perspectives on CPG data, market change and business growth. Beyond client work, Burke created The Marketing Spice and a Women’s History Month series that shared the experiences of female founders building businesses with purpose, resilience and ambition. Burke gives smaller companies access to disciplined strategy, practical systems and accountable leadership, showing how marketing can advance immediate business goals while building durable capacity for the future.

CEO

Imaginari

Jessica Dixon turns marketing pressure into sustainable growth

During a critical period for MIND 24-7, Jessica Dixon returned after a leadership change disrupted marketing, patient volumes fell and the organization needed a practical path back to growth. Working with a minimal monthly budget, Dixon focused the recovery plan on local access, patient acquisition and relationships with referral partners, creating clear next steps for prospective patients.

Across social media, Google Business optimization, geotargeted digital campaigns, influencer partnerships, radio and outdoor advertising, Dixon aligned each channel with the clinics’ immediate needs. From October through December, patient volume rose 762% across two clinics, giving MIND 24-7 its strongest fourth-quarter growth and restoring momentum for patients and clinic teams. Dixon paired disciplined execution with a clear message that made care easier to find, understand and choose without adding unnecessary complexity to the decision.

At SPiER, a global technology initiative under Zero Overdose, Dixon built the brand foundation, defining positioning, messaging, visual identity and marketing systems for growth across countries and healthcare environments. Dixon expanded the assignment into global marketing leadership, partner engagement, media visibility and communications that connect public health goals with practical adoption.

For the Dental Sedation Center of Connecticut, Dixon created a competitive platform with a clear market position, website, referral materials and brand tools that support expansion while giving prospective patients and referring providers consistent information. At the Lloyd H. Dean Institute for Humankindness & Health Justice, part of CommonSpirit Health, Dixon increased visibility through thought leadership, video, search strategy, podcasts and emerging digital channels to bring practical health justice conversations to broader audiences. Across these assignments, Dixon translates strategy into useful systems and helps organizations reach people during change, competition and constrained budgets.

Principal Consultant

Shackelford Strategies, LLC

Melissa Fors Shackelford connects growth, trust and purpose

At a time when behavioral health organizations face intense scrutiny and fragile public trust, Melissa Fors Shackelford built Shackelford Strategies to help leaders make growth decisions that protect credibility, expand access and respect people seeking care. The consulting firm guides clients through market entry, brand positioning and growth strategy in a health care category where every message can influence whether people pursue support. Shackelford treats marketing as a responsibility that shapes perception, access and outcomes rather than as a function focused only on demand.

Beyond client engagements, Shackelford helped launch the first Substance Use Disorder Pavilion at the HLTH Conference, creating dedicated space for innovation, dialogue and visibility within an often underrepresented field. The pavilion brought behavioral health into a prominent industry conversation while centering expertise, authenticity and the needs of people affected by substance use disorder. Shackelford also uses speaking engagements to challenge marketers to consider whether their work reinforces stigma or helps dismantle it.

During a TEDx talk, Shackelford examined purpose as a practical force behind meaningful work and authentic connection. The presentation asked leaders to align business decisions with the reasons their work matters to communities, patients and partners. Shackelford’s book, “Harnessing Purpose: A Marketer’s Guide to Inspiring Connection,” turns that approach into an accessible framework for leaders who want to build trust while pursuing growth.

Executive experience at Optum, Cigna’s Evernorth and Hazelden Betty Ford informs Shackelford’s work with a clear understanding of health care’s operational pressures and human stakes. By pairing strategy with ethical communication, Shackelford helps behavioral health organizations build stronger brands while advancing a more honest public conversation about mental health, substance use disorder and equitable access to care.

Founder & CEO

Strat House

Erin Mills builds growth on principle

At Strat House, founder and CEO Erin Mills built an agency around a demanding premise: Excellent work, equitable practices and human connection can reinforce one another every day in a demanding industry. Mills makes that premise an operating discipline, tying client choices, business development, growth plans and community commitments to the same values across every decision and relationship.

During the past year, Mills ended Strat House’s largest client relationship — a $2 million-plus account — when the partnership no longer matched Strat House values, despite the account’s importance to the agency. Mills then directed a deliberate business-development effort that diversified the client base, restored revenue and created a stronger foundation for independent, durable growth without sacrificing agency standards or independence.

Across international markets and U.S. cities, Strat House designed experiences that helped brands meet audiences with relevance, care and energy while translating ambitious ideas into practical, audience-centered moments for clients navigating changing expectations. For OnMed, Strat House created the Clinic-in-a-Box CareStation and brought a tangible health care concept to life, making healthcare access feel immediate and understandable.

To expand Strat House’s reach, Mills launched Strat House Social, a sister company for private social affairs and community events that carries the agency’s production approach into more personal settings. The new company produced Meta’s Pride Book Fair by Threads on a compressed timeline, centered LGBTQ+ authors and supplied fresh content throughout Pride Week for attendees, clients and online audiences.

Beyond client work, Mills embeds diversity, equity and inclusion in events, campaigns and workplace culture while supporting women through hiring, mentorship and community engagement. Mills provides pro bono consulting to Kim Crayton, founder of The Future Is Free movement, sustains low-cost and volunteer work for community organizations, and advocates for meaningful B2B brand encounters rather than treating live engagement as an optional extra.

Senior Director, Marketing + Communications

Harris

Angela Mork builds marketing teams that guide business growth

At Harris, senior director of marketing and communications Angela Mork treats communication as a leadership function, aligning business priorities with the people, messages and tools that help teams make informed decisions across a complex organization. Mork has shifted the function from a production resource into a strategic partner that advises executives, general managers, team leaders and individual contributors before projects reach the final stage.

The C-suite selected Mork to lead the Project Management Rotational Training Program, a three-year development experience that brings promising graduates into project work, gives them practical guidance and prepares them to take on greater responsibility. Mork identifies candidates, matches them with teams and projects and stays engaged as they develop skills, judgment and confidence across the business. That work has created a durable path to develop and retain emerging talent while giving Harris leaders a clearer way to cultivate future project managers.

Inside Marketing + Communications, Mork develops leaders who can hire, coach and make sound decisions, then trusts them with work that strengthens the team and builds capacity beyond direct oversight. When Harris made artificial intelligence an organization-wide priority, Mork asked the team to research options, develop ideas and present proposals, rather than impose a plan. That approach helped the group replace uncertainty with practical knowledge, share useful practices across departments and support a marketing-focused service that protects brand consistency while enabling everyday content creation with transparent safeguards.

Through a jobsite kit, Mork anticipated common site and office needs, including mental health materials that gave teams practical resources for conversations that often go unaddressed. Mork also guides proposal strategy, go-to-market planning, multichannel campaigns and account-based marketing in demanding markets, helping Harris pursue complex opportunities with disciplined messaging, stronger collaboration and a clearer view of customer needs.

Vice President, Influencer + Social

EvolveMKD

Joanna Campbell builds trust through social strategy

At EvolveMKD, Joanna Campbell directs influencer and social work that makes complex health information more accessible, credible and useful for people considering care, while giving clients a clearer way to communicate with those audiences. Campbell brings an editor’s discipline to marketing, pairing audience insight with creative storytelling and building strategies around real questions, credible voices and useful information instead of relying on one-way promotional messages.

In the Motiva campaign, Campbell led a social-first effort featuring Meghan Trainor, whose personal perspective and relatable voice helped women explore breast augmentation questions with more context and confidence. Campbell linked that storytelling to expert input and coordinated media, creating a path from awareness to education that increased website traffic by 65%.

To build more trust into healthcare communication, Campbell helped create EvolveMKD’s Phys-Influencers™ program, which invites medical professionals to participate as credible brand voices who explain evidence, answer concerns and bring clinical experience to consumer conversations. For Revance, Campbell applied that model alongside in-person treatment days, giving physicians a direct role in science-based content that connected provider education with patient needs.

Across EvolveMKD’s channels, Campbell clarified the organization’s voice, tone and visual style, then expanded Instagram and LinkedIn activity with practical perspectives on responsible medical marketing. Earlier roles prepared Campbell to identify changes in digital communication, including early brand community building, digital leadership for consumer beauty brands and work for hospitality, food access and culinary storytelling initiatives. During COVID-19, Campbell used social media to support World Central Kitchen and Marcus Samuelsson in connecting food-insecure communities with meals, showing how fast, thoughtful communication can meet an immediate public need. That sustained focus on empathy, evidence and execution allows Campbell to translate complex subjects into clear messages, strengthen trust between brands and audiences and show marketing’s value beyond attention alone for people making personal decisions about health and wellbeing.

Director, Social Media & Digital Content

EY

Falynne Finagan builds social strategy that advances EY Americas

At EY Americas, Falynne Finagan directs social media and digital content strategy that connects platform activity to core business priorities and builds trust, relevance and measurable value for diverse audiences across a large enterprise. Finagan turns complex decisions into clear plans, giving teams practical direction, repeatable processes and content frameworks that support faster execution, shared standards and purposeful work across regions, functions and platforms. That approach treats social media as a business function rather than a distribution channel, helping EY Americas deliver credible information, timely perspectives and useful conversations that connect brand activity to the concerns of business leaders and market audiences.

To modernize the practice, Finagan guides responsible use of AI-enabled tools for content development, optimization and insight generation, while setting clear guardrails for governance, brand standards, ethical review and human judgment. Finagan pairs innovation with disciplined review, helping teams improve speed and quality while protecting accuracy, consistency and audience trust in material that represents EY Americas across social platforms. By creating structures that teams can apply widely, Finagan helps EY Americas respond to changing audience needs, manage complex workflows and sustain credible communications as social platforms, expectations and technology evolve.

Beyond channel management, Finagan expanded executive advocacy through hands-on training, clear guidance and ready-to-use content that removes barriers and helps senior leaders participate with confidence in relevant social conversations. Those efforts strengthen leaders’ visibility as informed voices on business and market issues, encourage consistent participation and extend EY Americas’ reach beyond brand channels without compromising message quality or strategic focus. As executive champion for EY’s Abilities Business Resource Group in Atlanta, Finagan brings disability community perspectives to leadership discussions and advances inclusion, accessibility and representation in internal communications, external content and everyday decision-making.

Taken together, Finagan’s leadership links business performance with accessible communications and a stronger culture of accountability, creating practical value for employees, leaders and audiences throughout EY Americas.

SVP, Advertising

Nebo

Kelly Betancourt builds stronger advertising teams and client outcomes

At Nebo, senior vice president of advertising Kelly Betancourt directs marketing strategy across paid media, audience research and client partnerships, with a practical understanding of how audiences judge brands, media and messages. Raised by a single mother who worked nights, Betancourt started working at 16 to support household needs and later finance college, building discipline, resourcefulness and responsibility. That experience shapes a leadership approach that combines direct standards, sharp humor and accessible coaching for colleagues, clients and emerging talent.

During a volatile year of economic uncertainty, rapid technology shifts, leadership changes and client turnover, Betancourt kept the advertising team focused on thoughtful decisions, stable service and client needs. Betancourt increased departmental profitability by 9% while strengthening revenue through new client relationships, expanded assignments and deeper partnerships with existing clients. Betancourt brought DV360 in-house, expanding programmatic buying options and inventory access, and adopted Nexxen Discovery to give media plans stronger audience research and targeting direction. Working with Nebo leadership, Betancourt helped develop a proprietary AI tool that audits programmatic placements and flags made-for-advertising sites, brand safety concerns and low-quality inventory. The tool supports ethical AI use and gives teams a faster, more consistent way to protect client budgets, reputations and campaign quality.

Outside daily operations, Betancourt brought the same focus to nonprofit work, supporting PAWs Atlanta, The Trevor Project and new business efforts with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. At Georgia State University’s Interview Prep Day, Betancourt shared practical guidance on resumes, interviews and career planning with students who needed access to early career advice. By pairing operational discipline with mentorship and community work, Betancourt expands what advertising leadership can deliver for clients, colleagues and future marketers.

Senior Director, Media

ICF

Kelly Brentzel builds confident media teams and client strategies

Across ICF’s most consequential energy utility accounts, senior director of integrated media strategy Kelly Brentzel directs integrated strategies that connect client priorities, audience needs and clear measures of value in a changing energy landscape. Brentzel leads a team of 25, pairing rigorous planning with practical guidance that helps specialists make decisions, solve problems and build stronger relationships with clients and partners.

For the PSEG Jersey Ready launch, Brentzel aligned message, channel and audience choices so the work could explain value clearly, support launch goals and give partners a shared direction. For Exelon, Brentzel shaped a paid-media narrative that clarified the role of media, improved strategic positioning and gave clients a more useful view of results and next steps. Brentzel also helped expand client work by translating complex media questions into straightforward plans that account teams could carry into discussions with leaders, partners and decision-makers.

When a client required coordination with a media-buying partner that competed directly with ICF, Brentzel established clear working norms and kept the team focused on the client’s needs. Brentzel protected morale, maintained delivery quality and preserved trust by addressing tensions directly, setting realistic expectations and giving team members room to raise concerns.

Beyond account delivery, Brentzel authored frameworks on media, technology and AI that gave colleagues and clients practical ways to discuss changing marketing choices without losing sight of business goals. These resources turned technical subjects into usable guidance, strengthened consistency across the practice and encouraged teams to test ideas with greater confidence.

Through disciplined strategy, calm leadership and deliberate mentorship, Brentzel creates conditions across account teams and client conversations in which people contribute fully, clients receive clearer counsel and complex work moves forward with purpose as client conditions, market expectations and internal demands shift quickly from one phase to the next.

Senior Director, Global Partner Marketing

Cloudera

Natascha Lee builds a global partner marketing engine

Global partner marketing needs more than broad messaging. It needs a clear way for regional teams, sales organizations and technology allies to create demand together. At Cloudera, Natascha Lee addressed that need by linking partner strategy to hybrid data, analytics and enterprise AI priorities, then converting shared plans into programs that teams could apply in their markets and customer segments. Lee brought deep B2B technology experience to an ecosystem that includes AWS, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA, IBM, Snowflake and Accenture, creating a common structure for collaboration across varied partner models and geographies.

Rather than treating partners only as distribution channels, Lee established operating rhythms that connected alliance leaders, channel sales, demand generation and regional marketing leaders around defined audiences, messages and commercial outcomes across regions. Lee launched Partner Days, Partner-Led Marketing and Voice of the Partner, giving partners forums to influence plans, strengthen readiness and execute campaigns with Cloudera teams. Lee also refocused marketing development funds on co-created campaigns with measurable objectives, helping teams invest in activity that supported pipeline, partner engagement and business goals.

At EVOLVE25, a global event series in six cities, Lee increased partner participation through speaking opportunities, joint announcements, media outreach and shared messages about hybrid data and enterprise AI. As program owner for the Partner Impact 2026 Partner Kickoff Event, Lee aligned programming, content, production and executive input across AMER, EMEA and APAC, turning the go-to-market strategy into practical product, channel and enablement guidance. Lee also mentors talent and promotes trust, accountability and inclusion, helping global teams adapt a consistent strategy to local market needs while keeping partners connected to customer priorities.

That approach gave partners a more active role in how Cloudera communicates value, coordinates market activity and builds opportunities across regions while giving internal teams a repeatable model for joint planning, shared accountability and execution.

CMO

Contentful

Elizabeth Maxson builds an AI-ready marketing organization

During a rapid shift in marketing expectations, Elizabeth Maxson joined Contentful as chief marketing officer in October 2024 and quickly set a direction that connected brand building, product use and measurable business results across the business, even as Maxson prepared for and took maternity leave. Clear operating priorities and distributed ownership allowed the marketing team to maintain momentum during the transition, while Maxson built a culture in which colleagues made decisions, learned from results and carried shared accountability into daily work.

With Maxson’s direction, Contentful launched the company’s first integrated brand campaign and grew year-over-year pipeline by 23%, showing how a coordinated message, disciplined execution and close links between marketing activity, sales conversations and customer needs can advance commercial goals. Maxson also positioned marketing as customer zero for Contentful’s platform, directing the team to use the platform in daily work, to shorten campaign development cycles, to tailor outreach more effectively and to give customers and internal teams a visible proof point.

Rather than reserve artificial intelligence for specialists, Maxson built an AI-first culture around shared fluency, hands-on learning and open experimentation, helping marketers strengthen strategic judgment, test ideas responsibly and tie creative work to meaningful business outcomes. Through the AI Prompt Playground and a Slack channel, Maxson created practical spaces where employees exchange workflows, refine prompts and apply lessons to live assignments, encouraging continuous learning, strengthening creative confidence and preparing the team for changing tools and expectations.

Beyond Contentful, Maxson brought a practical perspective on human-led AI to New York Advertising Week, industry podcasts and leadership forums, including work with The Female Quotient, where Maxson emphasized evidence-based creativity, meaningful personalization and customer trust. As executive sponsor of Contentful’s Caregivers employee resource group, Maxson supports working caregivers and shows that ambitious leadership can create room for professional growth, family responsibilities and an inclusive culture, reinforcing a model that helps people contribute without abandoning personal priorities.

Director of Marketing & Communications

Robins Kaplan LLP

Taylor Pentelovitch builds a proactive marketing culture

At Robins Kaplan LLP, Taylor Pentelovitch directs marketing and communications through clear priorities, accountable execution and team development, raising the firm’s visibility while giving marketers the authority to shape strategy and lead across the organization. Pentelovitch connects brand, content and media work to client needs, creating a shared direction for digital experiences and attorney positioning.

During a pivotal agency change, Pentelovitch led the move to Infinite Global after a long relationship with the previous public relations firm, establishing a disciplined process centered on firm priorities and practical implementation. Pentelovitch brought direct reports, practice group leaders and business development managers into the planning, then worked with partners to build targeted media strategies that moved outreach from reaction to anticipation.

Building on the redesigned website launch, Pentelovitch guided a client-focused digital presence that makes the firm’s capabilities easier to find and understand while aligning the marketing team around stronger content, user experience and brand storytelling. The marketing team also secured coverage in national, regional and legal news outlets, including a KARE 11 feature that generated more than 20 million views and increased inbound interest in the firm. That visibility gives prospective clients a clearer entry point to the firm’s people, knowledge and services, while creating useful material for attorneys to share with existing relationships.

Through regular one-on-one mentorship and tailored development opportunities, Pentelovitch helps marketing professionals move beyond execution, develop strategic judgment and build productive relationships throughout the firm. Pentelovitch also serves as programming co-director for the Legal Marketing Association Midwest Strategic Planning Committee and shared public relations strategies at the Legal Marketing Association’s national conference, extending practical insight to legal marketing peers. By pairing high expectations with direct support, Pentelovitch creates a marketing function that responds quickly to opportunity, protects a consistent brand and prepares staff members to take on broader responsibility.

Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer

Virtua Health

Chrisie Scott turns consumer insight into human-centered care

At Virtua Health, senior vice president and chief marketing officer Chrisie Scott connects consumer behavior, feedback and data with language that helps patients understand care and choose a health system with confidence. Since joining in 2018, Scott has treated marketing as a relationship-building function, pairing brand strategy with practical tools that make care easier to find, navigate and trust. This approach guided the integration of Lourdes Health System and introduced “Here for Good,” a positioning that joined a changed organization around a clear public promise.

Scott built digital foundations through customer relationship management and customer data platforms, a custom segmentation model, an online feedback panel and a reputation management practice. To improve access, Scott led Virtua Health’s Access Center, supported the launch of patient experience navigators and introduced digital services that connected people with care. Scott also championed a CEO-hosted podcast and a systemwide effort in human understanding, helping employees build stronger relationships with patients and reconnect with purpose.

That infrastructure gives Virtua Health a continuous view of needs, concerns and perceptions across the care journey. Voice.Activated, a feedback community for patients and South Jersey residents, supplied more than 300,000 patient experience survey responses in 2025. Scott uses those insights to refine communications, strengthen loyalty and encourage patients to share their experiences with others.

Beyond patient marketing, Scott has led communications for clinical expansions, new care programs and community investments that address barriers to health. Scott partnered with Dennis Pullin on leadership communications and created the “Champions of Humanity” framework, which brings greater clarity to community-based programs focused on health access and equity. Through this work, Scott aligns brand, culture and consumer voice around a simple goal: Make health care more understandable, responsive and human.

Vice President Digital Customer Experience

SiTime

Judy Ash makes Precision Timing commercially accessible

At SiTime, Judy Ash, vice president of digital customer experience, reshaped digital channels from a support function into a commercial engine, helping customers understand Precision Timing as essential technology rather than a specialized component. Her work linked SiTime’s expanding semiconductor story to a clearer customer journey, moving engineers and buyers from initial interest toward evaluation, purchase and continuing engagement.

Across e-commerce, demand generation and lead management, Ash created faster paths to product information and purchasing for both new and returning customers, then used customer behavior to refine site content, checkout and follow-up. That approach made technical decisions easier for audiences building AI infrastructure, data centers, automotive platforms, aerospace and defense systems, communications networks and connected devices.

By treating e-commerce as a customer experience rather than a transaction page, Ash paired product access with abandoned-cart outreach, relevant guidance and a simpler checkout that encouraged buyers to complete orders without direct sales involvement. Digital demand then flowed into a more disciplined lead process, where marketing and sales could prioritize customer interest, coordinate follow-up and reduce delays between inquiry and meaningful conversation.

In one recent quarter, Ash reduced lead velocity by 63%, allowing SiTime to respond more quickly when customers sought timing solutions for critical systems and to carry that interest into the opportunity funnel. These changes gave engineers a practical route to research and purchase, gave buyers confidence in a complex category and gave commercial teams better visibility into emerging demand. By connecting content, commerce and lead management, Ash helped SiTime build a digital experience that supports market education, customer acquisition and durable growth in Precision Timing in fast-moving markets.

The result gave the company a repeatable way to turn market attention into informed action, while preserving the technical clarity that customers need when selecting components for demanding products and long development cycles.

Managing Director, Omnichannel Enablement

Klick Health

Stephanie D’Agostino builds healthcare marketing systems that deliver

At Klick Health, Stephanie D’Agostino directs omnichannel enablement as a business discipline that joins strategy, data, technology and consulting, giving healthcare marketers clear paths from early planning through ongoing optimization and customer engagement.

D’Agostino has expanded a consulting capability into a growth engine, guiding an integrated team that helps clients translate complex commercial needs into practical plans, connected systems and measurable action across the organization.

Over the past year, the practice grew more than 50% as D’Agostino converted initial strategy engagements into long-term partnerships while preserving client trust. Rather than stop at recommendations, D’Agostino leads teams that build and operate the platforms, analytics and workflows clients need to carry plans into market and improve performance.

Across pre-commercialization planning, launches and post-launch optimization, the group addresses competitive pressure, access challenges, reimbursement barriers and adherence needs that can limit a healthcare brand’s ability to serve patients at pivotal moments. D’Agostino brings data strategy, analytics, technology and consulting expertise to these assignments, helping teams make informed choices for clients and their teams when patient journeys and commercial environments demand precision.

The work spans rare diseases and large established brands, where teams must navigate constrained patient populations, difficult access pathways and support programs that require sustained attention over time. D’Agostino builds the conditions for that work through clear structures, shared accountability and ongoing skill development, enabling consultants to contribute across disciplines, take ownership of outcomes and maintain focus on client goals.

A mother who worked as a nurse first drew D’Agostino toward healthcare, beginning a career devoted to solving demanding marketing problems in an industry where commercial decisions affect care. By connecting strategic direction with the infrastructure needed to deliver it, D’Agostino gives clients durable capabilities, equips colleagues to grow and helps healthcare brands respond confidently in a changing environment.

Director, Product Management

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Nina Gunhouse builds a stronger digital customer experience

At a critical point in the organization’s digital evolution, Nina Gunhouse brought product leadership to interconnected work on customer data, on-site discovery and experience design, helping teams turn complex technical decisions into customer-focused action and business growth. Nina translated technical choices into clear business priorities, aligned teams around cross-functional milestones, and gave leaders a practical path from early approval through accountable delivery at each stage.

For platform replacement, Nina led a careful vendor review, evaluated technical fit and operating requirements, built the business case, planned resources and secured stakeholder support before the customer data platform moved into implementation. The resulting platform streamlined customer data management, gave marketing teams a stronger foundation for precise personalization and helped customers receive communications that more closely reflected their needs. Nina also directed ongoing use and optimization of the personalization program, pairing product judgment with technical guidance to make digital interactions more relevant, useful and engaging across channels.

With the same focus on customer utility, Nina guided selection of a site search engine that improved how visitors locate products, content and answers across the digital experience. Nina led the new homepage build, bringing product priorities, design input and user needs together in a digital front door that encourages engagement and reinforces brand loyalty. Beyond individual launches, Nina lead her team in creating the UI/UX design function, establishing clearer ways to incorporate user-centered design into future product work and build a durable capability.

These connected efforts improved the systems behind marketing, reduced friction in the customer journey and created a more coherent experience for people seeking information and products from discovery through ongoing engagement. Through industry forums and conferences, Nina shared lessons from this work, extending a leadership model built on collaboration, rigorous planning and practical improvements for customers and teams across marketing technology communities.

Vice President, Digital Marketing and Communications

Link Logistics

Gretchen Lowery builds digital systems that strengthen the leasing path

Digital infrastructure now anchors Link Logistics’ effort to connect prospective customers with available properties across the portfolio, and Gretchen Lowery directs the marketing and technology work that turns complex systems into a clearer, more responsive leasing path.

Drawing on deep marketing experience, Lowery brings technical concepts into practical use and aligns Communications, Creative & Production, Customer Intelligence and Technology around shared customer needs, business priorities and measurable digital performance.

Through a website restructure, Lowery replaced an aging platform with an adaptable foundation that improves site speed and search performance while routing inquiries through Salesforce to support international audiences, AI-enabled workflows and more efficient team operations. The relaunch gives prospective customers faster access to property information, gives search and answer engines clearer signals about Link Logistics and gives internal teams a simpler way to manage content, leads and ongoing digital work.

In parallel, Lowery partnered with Communications and external specialists to build an AI optimization program that helps answer engines interpret Link Logistics’ business, leasing expertise and property offerings. The program combines structured data, useful market and property content, credible external citations and media placements, raising Link Logistics’ visibility for relevant industrial real estate prompts from 4% to 39%.

To connect marketing activity with business outcomes, Lowery brought website, advertising and marketplace data into Snowflake alongside property and lease information. The integration gives Link Logistics a stronger view of how digital engagement supports leasing activity, while Lowery’s Salesforce Marketing Cloud work gives brokers and customers timely visibility into available properties.

By building connected systems rather than isolated campaigns, Lowery has made digital marketing a practical source of insight, service and momentum for Link Logistics’ customers, brokers and internal teams.

Chief Marketing Officer

Ingenovis Health

Lauren Pasquale Bartlett builds marketing engines that create growth

At a period of consolidation in healthcare staffing, Lauren Pasquale Bartlett gave Ingenovis Health a shared market identity and a practical way to turn marketing into business growth. As Ingenovis Health’s first chief marketing officer, Bartlett united formerly separate marketing teams, shaped brand architecture and guided communications that connected employees, clinicians and clients to a common purpose.

Rather than treat campaigns as an expense, Bartlett built a centralized service model that paired brand stewardship with candidate acquisition, database development and performance analysis. Bartlett expanded the digital foundation, strengthened lead quality and linked investment decisions to margin, generating more than $270 million in cumulative gross margin.

During the pandemic, Bartlett led a public relations strategy that brought frontline clinicians’ experiences into national news coverage and gave healthcare staffing a more human voice. Those stories strengthened trust among clients and candidates while helping Ingenovis Health maintain visibility in a field where credibility shapes demand and loyalty.

Before healthcare staffing, Bartlett developed digital businesses in sports, beginning with early online and social platforms for the Olympic movement and later advancing fan engagement, sponsorship activation and digital operations across major organizations. That work taught Bartlett to translate emerging channels into useful experiences, dependable revenue and durable communities, a discipline Bartlett brought to a changing healthcare market.

Inside Ingenovis Health, Bartlett also treats leadership development as a core marketing responsibility, sharing strategy openly, assigning meaningful ownership and preparing team members to make enterprise-level decisions. Bartlett brings the same practical approach to industry forums and community service, offering lessons on brand building, digital change and crisis communications while supporting causes beyond the workplace.

Across every assignment, Bartlett has addressed the same challenge: create clarity when organizations change, make technology serve people and show leaders how disciplined marketing can create measurable value. That combination of operational focus, creative judgment and commitment to colleagues has helped Ingenovis Health build a brand that can grow without losing sight of the clinicians and communities Ingenovis Health serves.

Partner, Chief Strategy + Creative Officer

H+M Communications

Jennifer Becerra builds resilience through cultural insight

During industry disruption that reshaped audience habits, production schedules and corporate commitments to diversity, Jennifer Becerra, partner and chief strategy and creative officer at H+M Communications, directed an agency reinvention centered on diversification, modern operations and integrated marketing. Becerra applied a “Delivering the Unexpected” leadership philosophy to move H+M beyond traditional public relations and build services that connect culture, commerce and community needs for clients facing fast-changing public expectations.

After Hollywood labor disruptions cut billings by 40%, Becerra guided a recovery by pursuing new business, broadening sector expertise and sharpening the agency’s planning discipline across teams and accounts. That work brought agency-of-record assignments from Comcast, Pinterest, Warner Bros. Discovery, Spirit of Gallo, Thoma Bravo and Frost School of Music, while expanding H+M’s role in technology, entertainment, consumer brands, education and deeper client partnerships.

To address fragmented influence after the pandemic, Becerra developed H+M’s SAIL framework and Standards of Excellence, giving teams a shared method for turning audience insight into coordinated action across disciplines and markets. The approach links audience behavior, creator culture, live experiences and business goals, allowing H+M to build stories that travel across channels without losing cultural relevance for clients. Becerra applied that model to entertainment campaigns connected to Lilo & Stitch, Superman, Jurassic World Rebirth, Wicked and The Devil Wears Prada.

Across Mexico and Latin America, Becerra also led communications work for Universal Pictures, Canela Media and Amazon Prime Video, adapting strategy to local audiences while maintaining clear campaign direction in complex regional markets. Becerra serves on the Hispanic Public Relations Association board and contributes to The New Influence Playbook, extending that work beyond H+M and helping marketers examine creator culture, multicultural engagement and durable community relationships. Becerra has equipped H+M to respond to uncertainty with practical systems, broader capabilities and marketing that treats culture as a force for business connection during continuing change.

Senior Vice President – Chief Marketing Officer, Corporate Marketing

Ameresco

Leila Dillon builds clarity for reliable energy infrastructure

Amid volatile energy markets and growing demands on power systems, Leila Dillon, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Ameresco, made marketing a business tool for clarifying how dependable energy infrastructure supports customers, investors and communities. Dillon united marketing, communications and executive leadership behind a clear position: Ameresco provides energy solutions for organizations that cannot accept disruption.

That work replaced diffuse descriptions of clean energy services with a focused account of reliability, connecting Ameresco’s capabilities to data centers, defense operations and other high-demand settings. During a leadership transition, Dillon raised executive visibility, equipped leaders with consistent messages and built a coordinated media approach that connected operating priorities with market expectations across Ameresco.

Integrated campaigns brought geothermal, nuclear and advanced energy systems into a practical conversation about rising demand from artificial intelligence and electrification, helping priority audiences understand Ameresco’s role in meeting urgent energy needs. Dillon directed outreach to hyperscalers, utilities and federal agencies, while linking communications plans to growth priorities and investor questions.

Those efforts translated business progress into a coherent market case, supporting Ameresco’s 9% year-over-year revenue growth under changing conditions and giving decision-makers a clearer view of Ameresco’s capacity to deliver. By making complex energy choices understandable and relevant, Dillon strengthened marketing’s role in business strategy and modeled senior leadership in a rapidly changing sector that needs technical credibility and public confidence.

Rather than treating visibility as an end in itself, Dillon used executive platforms and media conversations to show how project expertise, operational execution and customer needs intersect when energy reliability carries economic and national consequences. The approach gave internal teams a shared language for explaining value, enabled external audiences to assess Ameresco beyond short-term market noise and established a durable foundation for future demand across customer and capital markets.

Chief Communications and Marketing Officer

City of McKinney, Texas

CoCo Good builds public trust through strategic communication

Government communication often treats public information as a transaction, but CoCo Good built it into a leadership function that connects trust, culture and community identity rather than an administrative service. Good brought corporate discipline, agency creativity and a global perspective to the City of McKinney, Texas, where Good created its first communications and marketing function as a member of executive leadership.

Earlier roles in public relations, advertising and global corporate communications taught Good to unite varied audiences around clear, credible narratives across cultures, business units and community interests, including work that reached teams in 50 countries. Those experiences informed an approach that treats communication as essential infrastructure for organizational trust and gives leaders a reliable way to explain priorities and listen to concerns.

At McKinney, Good developed the research-based “Unique by Nature” brand and used it to clarify the city’s character for residents, businesses and wider audiences. The work moved beyond a tagline, guiding a consistent story across services, initiatives and external outreach.

The identity has remained relevant through leadership changes, political shifts and periods of growth, giving the city a durable framework for decisions, engagement and reputation while preserving continuity for people who live and work there. Good also built an in-house communications department, aligned messaging across city partners and strengthened executive communication, public engagement and internal information sharing to make communication central to planning rather than a response to events.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Good directed timely public updates that paired accuracy with empathy and clarity when residents needed dependable guidance. Beyond city operations, Good publishes, speaks and advises on government communication, branding, crisis leadership and culture change, translating complex public issues into practical strategies for peers across the profession. Good mentors emerging professionals and champions women in leadership, extending a career-long commitment to develop communicators as trusted strategic advisers and community stewards whose work can improve public understanding and participation.

Co-Founder of Nextdoor, Head of Marketing, Community, & Business Operations

Nextdoor

Sarah Leary builds a daily local resource

As local information has grown harder to verify and use, Sarah Leary returned to Nextdoor with a mandate to rebuild the service as a daily resource for neighbors, public agencies and businesses seeking timely, trusted guidance during moments of need. As co-founder and chief marketing and global business operations officer, Leary joined product choices, market strategy and business operations behind a clearer mission: make local connection useful when people need answers, help or context.

Leary led a far-reaching product and brand reset that organized the experience around Alerts, News and Ask, shifting Nextdoor beyond a neighborhood forum toward a service built for everyday decisions and urgent moments across the service. The design gives residents emergency and weather updates from trusted providers, local reporting in their feeds and recommendations drawn from conversations among people who know the area firsthand, close to home.

To bring that promise to market, Leary built a go-to-market plan that connected the redesigned experience with a more global, scalable operating model across marketing, product, sales and operations in a changing business. Leary also helped establish an advertising platform that makes neighborhood relevance useful to businesses without pulling attention away from the information residents seek. AI-powered click optimization produced an average click-through-rate lift of 134% in testing against CPM bidding, giving advertisers a clearer way to reach local audiences.

Rather than treating trust as a brand claim, Leary built trust into the product experience and commercial strategy, using local usefulness to guide decisions, partnerships and long-term growth. The approach equips residents to respond to changing conditions, helps local institutions share credible updates and gives businesses a more relevant role in neighborhood life. The rebuilding of a company Leary helped create shows how a founder can revisit an original idea with fresh urgency, disciplined leadership and practical execution.

Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Renewals

Ivanti

Melissa Puls connects marketing to lasting customer value

As chief marketing officer and senior vice president of customer success and renewals at Ivanti, Melissa Puls united teams that often operate separately around one goal: helping customers realize measurable business value. The approach moved marketing beyond demand generation and made customer outcomes central to brand trust, revenue durability and growth.

Puls built a lifecycle model that connects the first customer interaction to adoption, renewal readiness and advocacy. The framework gives marketing, sales, customer success and renewals a shared definition of success, with customer value guiding every stage. Rather than lead with product capabilities alone, Puls shaped messaging around productivity, cost efficiency and risk reduction for enterprise technology buyers.

To support that strategy, Puls introduced shared dashboards, unified reporting and lifecycle planning across Ivanti. These tools help teams identify pipeline progress, adoption needs and renewal risk early, while customers receive consistent guidance throughout the relationship. Puls also strengthened account-based engagement and demand marketing by using buyer intent, customer maturity and lifecycle stage to make communications more relevant.

A customer-outcomes initiative now captures verified customer results and turns them into practical resources for sales, marketing and customer success teams. Ivanti experts and customer peers review submitted outcomes, creating credible stories that support value-based conversations and help customers share their own progress. The effort replaced scattered proof points with a repeatable process that connects customer experience to market credibility.

Puls also embedded AI into marketing operations to improve targeting, forecasting and efficiency without adding resources. Marketing contributed 57% of total pipeline in 2025, reflecting an integrated model that links demand creation with adoption, retention and advocacy.

By aligning brand promises with the customer experience, Puls has given Ivanti a more disciplined way to build relationships and demonstrate value. The model shows how marketing leadership can connect teams, clarify accountability and strengthen customer confidence over time.

Vice President, Marketing & Engagement

DHL Supply Chain North America

Gretchen Torres builds marketing into a business growth engine

Within DHL Supply Chain North America, Gretchen Torres shifted Marketing & Engagement from a service function into a growth discipline that informs business decisions, customer relationships and the company’s place in a complex supply chain market. Torres built an integrated in-house team that joins strategy, creative work, internal communications, production, events and digital activation, allowing one function to carry ideas from planning through delivery. That model aligns marketing priorities with enterprise strategy, gives leaders a clearer route from market insight to action and treats customer experience as a responsibility shared across the business.

At the regional board level, Torres brought marketing into conversations that shape investment, operations and long-term direction, creating a consistent strategic voice for customer needs and brand development. Torres introduced Insight 2030, a research-based market outlook that gave sales teams, operations leaders and customers a shared narrative for planning, investment discussions and decision-making amid uncertainty. Through an early commitment to Manifest, Torres expanded DHL Supply Chain North America’s presence with mainstage ideas, executive customer meetings and a clear view of trends influencing the industry’s future.

Across the organization, Torres scaled internal communications that connect associates, leaders and sites through live town halls, conferences and regular newsroom-style updates that translate company priorities into useful local information. Torres made safety communication central to that work, turning associate observations into faster reporting, more open dialogue and stronger attention to daily risks before incidents occur. The campaign helped reduce recordable injuries by 8%, showing how clear messages, accessible channels and employee participation can support safer operations and make prevention part of everyday work. By pairing disciplined planning with useful content and practical measurement, Torres created a scalable model that gives marketing a direct role in business performance, customer experience and workplace culture.

President

January Digital

Sarah Engel aligns marketing leadership with growth

At January Digital, Sarah Engel has recast the traditional agency model as a marketing leadership company, bringing strategy, media, analytics and consulting together to address business challenges from a client leadership perspective. As president, Engel directs teams that pair channel knowledge with brand experience, helping retail and consumer businesses connect marketing decisions to durable growth.

Rather than separating creative work from performance goals, Engel directs January Digital’s unified approach, which uses Mikey, an AI-driven operating system, to connect market signals, brand analytics, media planning and creative ideation. That model supports Carhartt, Supergoop!, Interstate Batteries, Steve Madden, StriVectin and amika, while keeping planning, execution and optimization accountable to shared business goals.

Across more than 25 years in brand, technology, consulting and agency leadership, Engel has linked organizational design to marketing effectiveness. At Lilly Pulitzer, Travelocity, Match and DynamicAction, Engel modernized customer engagement, advanced data-informed decision-making and helped teams translate change into action.

Outside executive posts, Engel advises Shoptalk and Groceryshop, where Engel has helped build programming, elevate diverse voices and expand connections for emerging leaders. At Shoptalk Luxe, Engel led a research-backed workshop on AI in commerce, helped advance gender parity among speakers and co-launched Shoptalk Meetup for Women.

Through board service with ThredUp, Rebel Nell and LSH Philadelphia, Engel brings marketing, retail and organizational strategy to business innovation, employment opportunity and community services. Engel’s leadership treats marketing as a business discipline that joins data, technology and human insight to create sustainable growth.

By treating client teams as partners rather than accounts, Engel creates working relationships that move from diagnosis to decision without separating long-term brand priorities from immediate performance needs across the customer journey. That discipline gives leaders practical choices during change, strengthens the teams that execute those choices and keeps customer needs at the center of growth during changing market conditions.

Chief Marketing Officer

Municipal Credit Union

Cania Infante builds a more human Municipal Credit Union

At a time when financial marketing often reduces people to transactions, Cania Infante reshaped Municipal Credit Union into a modern, accessible brand that reflects the daily realities, pressures and ambitions of New Yorkers. Infante moved marketing beyond communications and made it an enterprise function that guides growth, member experience, business development, digital engagement, analytics, community outreach, insurance, wealth management and Voice of the Member work across the organization.

Following Municipal Credit Union’s expanded eligibility across New York City, Infante created the “We’re Here For It” platform to make access clear, credible and relevant to eligible residents. Rather than rely on product claims or familiar financial-category language, the campaign used a human voice and emotionally grounded stories that acknowledged financial pressure, uncertainty and resilience without minimizing difficult decisions. Infante aligned creative, media, digital experiences and internal teams around a single promise: Municipal Credit Union understands members’ lives and offers practical support when financial choices carry real consequences.

To turn that promise into action, Infante connected campaign planning with service delivery, business priorities and listening practices that reveal what members need from a trusted local institution. That approach strengthened awareness and consideration, while helping people see Municipal Credit Union as a financial partner instead of another institution competing for attention in a crowded market. Municipal Credit Union recorded 25% year-over-year membership growth, tying a more distinctive brand and a more responsive member strategy to concrete business progress for an institution with deep public-service roots.

Beyond the campaign, Infante built a marketing organization that pairs empathy with accountability, invites cross-functional planning and turns member feedback into clearer communications, stronger experiences and decisions that serve the community. By treating brand as an operating discipline, Infante gives a community-based financial institution a durable way to compete: listen closely, communicate plainly and build trust through actions that match the promise.

Chief Marketing Officer, EY Americas Consulting

EY Consulting

Lisa Peterson turns marketing into a business growth engine

At EY Americas Consulting, Lisa Peterson recast marketing as a business growth function, applying financial discipline and evidence-led storytelling to reshape how the market understands EY’s technology and AI consulting capabilities. Rather than relying on broad service claims, Peterson directed the marketing team to build client-centered narratives that connected complex technology with business decisions, measurable value and practical change. Documentary-style work featuring Bayer and Reuters on the Road gave leaders concrete examples of AI in action, while stronger search visibility expanded that proof across industries and buyer groups.

To help organizations navigate agentic AI, Peterson led the rollout of strategic planning scenarios and the marketing for EY.ai Value Blueprints, translating emerging technology into choices leaders could assess with greater clarity. Peterson then created Editorial Windows, which focused research, stories and distribution around market moments when audiences needed informed perspective, instead of scattering resources across an always-on calendar. The model increased website engagement by 400% during active windows, showing how coordinated publishing can create relevance, deepen attention and give audience members a clear reason to return.

Beyond campaign execution, Peterson brought finance and M&A experience into marketing operations, asking the marketing team to link investment decisions with client demand, commercial opportunity and revenue before expanding activity. That discipline made marketing a more accountable partner for business leaders because each initiative began with a defined purpose, a focused audience and a path to action. Peterson embedded this approach in the function’s daily work, giving teams a shared standard for deciding which ideas merit investment, which stories need more evidence, and which channels can drive meaningful engagement. By joining persuasive stories with financial rigor, Peterson built a repeatable approach that helps EY Americas Consulting focus resources, support client conversations and sustain growth in a changing AI market with durable market relevance.

Chief Marketing Officer

ParentSquare

Janelle Raney builds a stronger family engagement model

Amid expanding school choices, Janelle Raney reframed ParentSquare as family engagement infrastructure, helping districts treat every family interaction as part of the experience that drives enrollment, trust and retention. Rather than position ParentSquare as a communications tool, Raney connected classroom messages, mass notifications, websites, payments, forms and attendance within a unified system that delivers accessible, consistent family engagement. That shift gave internal teams a shared language for decisions, replacing feature-led requests with a durable focus on family and district outcomes that influence choice.

After joining ParentSquare, Raney moved marketing beyond reactive requests and into a growth role that defined the market challenge, set a strategy for scale and linked customer needs to business priorities. Raney created the family engagement infrastructure category, then aligned marketing, product, sales and customer success behind outcome-focused messaging that gave districts a clearer way to evaluate school-to-home engagement. Raney expanded customer validation through G2, district speaking engagements and case studies, giving prospective customers practical evidence of how integrated engagement can improve daily school operations.

That approach increased marketing-driven pipeline for active deals 40% year over year without a major increase in program spending, while also improving the path from initial interest to meaningful conversations about new and expanded services. Raney also shaped ParentSquare Attendance Plus to help districts connect family communication with attendance support, act earlier when students miss school and protect resources tied to student participation.

With a new brand and website experience, Raney is carrying that category into every touchpoint, helping ParentSquare show how schools can serve families across languages, devices and circumstances while building experiences families choose and recommend. By making engagement easier to manage and access, the strategy gives districts a practical way to strengthen relationships before concerns become reasons families leave.

Senior Analyst – US&C Demand Generation

Unisys

Maggie Fitzpatrick turns executive experiences into lasting business relationships

Executive marketing often reaches its most consequential moment after presentations end, when a leader decides whether a company has earned trust or declined it. At Unisys, Maggie Fitzpatrick makes those moments intentional, pairing rigorous event execution with personal attention that turns senior contacts into active partners for account teams and company leaders.

A surprise birthday cake for a client CIO during an executive dinner reflected Fitzpatrick’s approach: notice the person, anticipate the need and create a reason to continue the conversation after dinner ends. The gesture strengthened a client relationship, built an advocate for Unisys and supported a major deal with commercial consequences.

Fitzpatrick helped launch Unisys’ proprietary C-suite community while the company recruited a permanent senior leader, bringing early members into a setting built for candid exchange, sustained connection and peers facing consequential business decisions. When an unexpected personal crisis sidelined a colleague before a flagship CIO100 gathering, Fitzpatrick assumed responsibility and delivered a sold-out program for more than 50 senior technology leaders despite limited preparation time.

For the Ryder Cup, Fitzpatrick coordinated travel, accommodations, dinners and executive needs across a complex multi-day experience under changing schedules and exacting expectations. Fitzpatrick also documented leads and touchpoints, kept commercial leaders informed and tied the experience to sales opportunities, a closed client deal and a new relationship with a global sustainability leader.

Fortune 500 executives responded with direct thanks to Fitzpatrick, signaling that careful service can build loyalty and a willingness to engage again where conventional outreach often cannot. Fitzpatrick now brings the same executive presence to Unisys board meetings, showing how patient relationship building can strengthen a community, support revenue and give senior leaders a reason to return for future conversations and decisions.

Account Manager, Consumer & Travel

Interdependence

Sierra Gardner turns brand stories into live experiences

By translating film narratives into public experiences, Sierra Gardner connects entertainment brands with media, creators and audiences through moments that invite participation, spark conversation and move stories beyond passive viewing for communities that expect brands to offer something tangible, timely and worth discussing.

At Interdependence, Gardner guides complex, multichannel work for global brands, joining campaign planning, message development and detailed execution across press outreach, influencer engagement, live events and client communication from initial concepts through final reporting.

For Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Gardner helped turn Manhattan into a live-action heist inspired by Play Dirty, creating a physical story that gave influencers compelling material to explore, share and extend beyond conventional film promotion.

Gardner also shaped festival experiences for American Apparel at Lollapalooza and Governors Ball, designing hospitality, exclusive access, custom apparel and content environments for editors, tastemakers and cultural reporters.

The festival programs encouraged organic social and editorial coverage, strengthened press relationships and placed the brand in fast-moving lifestyle conversations, where each interaction could build familiarity and trust.

During a press trip for Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach, Germany, Gardner connected the company’s history with contemporary design and innovation, helping journalists develop stories that carried the brand’s legacy into current coverage.

For OVERTONE, Gardner sustained a long-term PR partnership by matching product narratives with timely editorial opportunities and maintaining the consistency that gives client relationships strategic value over time.

Gardner also led PR strategy for Molekule, generating more than 9.3 billion impressions through placements that linked product information to the interests of consumer, technology and home audiences.

Rather than treat events as isolated publicity moments, Gardner builds each experience around a clear audience purpose, then carries that purpose through invitations, onsite details, follow-up outreach and the stories journalists choose to tell.

Across experiential campaigns and ongoing accounts, Gardner brings creative judgment, operational rigor and client focus to work that creates useful media experiences, reinforces cultural relevance and supports business goals.

Communications Coordinator

Airlines for America

Paige Mucci turns aviation policy into public action

At Airlines for America, Paige Mucci turns complex aviation policy into clear public-facing campaigns that connect federal priorities, state advocacy and daily consumer concerns for audiences who need to understand how decisions affect travel. Mucci guides marketing, advertising, social media and local communications while serving as the Modern Skies Coalition’s primary spokesperson in a fast-moving policy environment.

During the coalition launch, Mucci developed creative for advertising and social channels that framed outdated air traffic control technology as a practical challenge for travelers, airlines and the broader economy, giving the coalition a recognizable public voice from the outset. Mucci also worked with reporters to expand coverage and sustain the public case for modernizing the nation’s aviation infrastructure across trade, mainstream and regional news outlets.

That coordinated effort helped build momentum for a $12.5 billion federal investment, which Congress approved and the president signed into law to advance air traffic control modernization after lawmakers and federal leaders acted on the legislation. By pairing accessible messages with consistent outreach, Mucci translated a technical policy issue into a visible national priority for policymakers, media and people who rely on dependable air service.

At the state level, Mucci partnered with Airlines for America Government Affairs staff to organize grassroots campaigns against proposals that would limit consumers’ ability to earn credit card rewards, giving supporters clear information and a path to action. Those efforts helped stop legislation in several states, protecting a consumer benefit that many travelers use to make air travel more accessible and maintain flexibility in how they pay for trips.

Across Airlines for America channels, Mucci coordinates accurate, timely content that supports advocacy campaigns, events and organizational priorities, keeping every message connected to policy goals and public needs. Mucci also launched Airlines for America’s TikTok presence, using current formats and on-camera explainers to bring aviation issues to audiences who may not follow policy debates and create an approachable entry point for a new generation of travelers.

Digital Content Specialist

Macon-Bibb County

Emily Wilson builds digital connections that move Macon-Bibb County forward

As a digital content specialist for Macon-Bibb County’s Office of Communications, Emily Wilson directs content for the website and primary social media channels, while guiding a broad network of additional county pages across channels where residents expect fast, reliable access to government information. When severe weather or another crisis threatens the community, Wilson leads the Emergency Management Agency’s social media response with timely safety information, practical updates and public posts that can guide response crews during rapidly changing conditions.

This work reframes public information as a continuing conversation, using clear language, useful visuals and platform-aware storytelling to help residents find services, understand local work and participate in community life. By bringing creativity and sound editorial judgment to everyday posts, Wilson has expanded Macon-Bibb County’s online audience and strengthened the constructive exchanges that build public trust across subjects that range from public safety to civic events.

For the community’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance, Wilson’s video captured the meaning of the march and kept a message of service in front of new audiences, generating more than 1.67 million views. Wilson brought the same audience-centered approach to a Fire Department calendar that supported a local children’s hospital, using behind-the-scenes videos to build interest without revealing the featured images too early. The campaign invited firefighters and department leaders into a more human public role, increased interest in online sales and connected local generosity with a tangible community need.

At the Brookdale Resource Center, Wilson coordinated videos, media coverage and written stories that encouraged residents to donate supplies and volunteer time. The resulting content made the center’s work more visible, linked community members to immediate ways to help and reinforced that sustained digital communication can support neighbors facing hardship through clear calls to action and respectful attention to their experiences.

Congratulations to the 2026 Top Women in Marketing Honorees!

HONOREES

Top Women in Marketing Hall of Fame

Agency Leaders

AI and Innovation Leaders

Brand Marketers

Content Marketers

Data/Analytics Leaders

Disrupters

Experiential and Brand Experience Leaders

Founder or Independent Consultant

Mentors

Team Leaders

Tech/Digital Marketers

Trailblazers

Visionaries

Marketers to Watch (Age 30 and Under)

Additional Awards

Congratulations to the 2026 Top Women in Marketing Honorees!

HONOREES

Top Women in Marketing Hall of Fame

Agency Leaders

AI and Innovation Leaders

Brand Marketers

Content Marketers

Data/Analytics Leaders

Disrupters

Experiential and Brand Experience Leaders

Founder or Independent Consultant

Mentors

Social Media Marketers

Team Leaders

Tech/Digital Marketers

Trailblazers

Visionaries

Marketers to Watch (Age 30 and Under)

Additional Awards