community-engagement
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Kristi Mitchell Left the Center to Change Who Gets Heard
After 23 years inside institutions that turn evidence into policy, Kristi Mitchell made a quieter bet: the people represented by the data should help shape it.
Michelle Hege Built a Career by Asking Before Answering
DH's first employee became its CEO by treating curiosity as a discipline. Nearly three decades later, Michelle Hege still begins with the audience, especially when the message is difficult.
Cara Cross Took the Long Route to Ownership - Through the Sales Floor
She joined Gazelle Sports to help customers find shoes. Fourteen years later, she became one of its two owners - proof that durable brand strategy may begin by listening on the shop floor.
Jesse Gronner Took a Temp Job. Then He Spent 25 Years Rewriting the Grid.
A college graduate headed west by way of national parks, landed in an energy office as a temp, and stayed for the industry’s long conversion. Now Jesse Gronner is betting that clean power runs on turbines, patient capital, and something harder to engineer: trust.
Del Smith Is Building the Missing Layer in Clinical Research: Trust
The former business-school dean turned a neglected business input - community trust - into Acclinate's operating system for more representative clinical research.
Jennifer Bromley Made the Career Pivot Marketers Talk About - From Selling Services to Selling a Fairer Idea
After two decades building brands, Jennifer Bromley moved from the customer economy to the inclusion economy. Her playbook is refreshingly practical: listen early, make the mission legible, and treat advocacy as an operating discipline.
Rosanne Goetz and the Quiet Architecture of Being Heard
For a decade at The Mustard Seed, Rosanne Goetz has worked where attention, trust and practical help meet. Her career offers a grounded lesson in nonprofit marketing: the story matters because someone is waiting on the other side of it.
Dorian Morphy and the Long Game of Belonging
For nearly three decades, Dorian Morphy has helped turn Winnipeg fandom into a civic ritual - from the Moose and the Drive to 13,000 to a broader idea of who gets to feel at home in hockey.
Deanna Capel
At Busey, Deanna Capel turned a first job in communications into a career shaping how a regional bank sounds, serves and shows up. Her path runs through brand systems, merger moments and the unglamorous work of being present in Champaign.
Wendy Schenker
Wendy Schenker turned a bank’s marketing brief into a Chicago invitation - pairing sponsorships, public rituals and community work so the brand is experienced before it is advertised.
Adriana Echandi
Adriana Echandi Bachtold is the Group CEO of Morpho Travel Experience, a Latin American travel retail and food & beverage powerhouse with over 2,800 employees across 11 countries. Starting as a cashier-seller at what was then Grupo Britt in 2002, she rose through every rung of the organization to become CEO - overseeing 300+ commercial spaces in 23 airports serving 78 million passengers annually. Named Businesswoman of the Year 2022 by Costa Rica's El Financiero and a Moodie Davitt People of the Year honoree, she leads a company built around 'sense of place' - connecting global travelers with authentic local culture, artisan products, and sustainable practices. A fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, she has built a company where 50% of management are women, equal pay is non-negotiable, and a kiosk in San José has become a $225 million regional retail force.
Paulo Martins
Paulo Martins is the Brazilian-born founder and CEO of Arena (arena.im), a San Francisco-based AI-powered community engagement platform that lets brands embed live chat, live blogs, and audience interaction tools directly on their own websites with a single line of code. After stints at NASA, Ubisoft, and Hulu — where he helped grow the streaming company from 100K to 7 million paying subscribers — Martins founded Arena in 2017 with a clear thesis: businesses should own their audience, not rent it from social platforms. By 2022, Arena had grown to 25,000 customers across 150 countries and closed a $13.6M Series A led by CRV, with backing from heavyweights like David Sacks, Des Traynor, and Olivier Pomel.