Andrés Rodríguez

VP of Strategy, C+C

Campaign Clarity Over Clutter: Why Saying Less Can Inspire More Action

Andrés is a brand strategist and creative thinker helping brands define their purpose, craft compelling narratives, and connect with audiences in meaningful ways. He specializes in data-driven storytelling, multicultural marketing, and campaign strategies that blend insight, culture, and creativity. From public health campaigns to campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, Andrés has helped organizations uncover the strategic foundations to guide their work in a way that is clear and impactful.

Wyatt Curtiss

Group Creative Director,  C+C

Campaign Clarity Over Clutter: Why Saying Less Can Inspire More Actio

Wyatt is a creative leader who develops award-winning behavior change campaigns on topics including vaccination, traffic safety, financial literacy, and recycling. With a background spanning copywriting, strategy, account management and basic carpentry, Wyatt specializes in turning complex ideas into simple messages that inspire action.

His work has earned Best of Show at PRSA’s Silver Anvil Awards, two Northwest Emmys, and roughly 75 pounds of PRweek, ADDY, Telly, Shorty, Content Marketing and SABRE awards. More importantly, his work cuts through the clutter to inspire real-world behavior change by making people laugh, cry, or stop to think.

When he’s not scribbling in a notebook or presenting campaign concepts, Wyatt is most likely found reading sci-fi, listening to hip-hop, or on a golf course. He is also the only C+C employee to ever break a window with a T-shirt cannon.

Melissa Blair

Principal Consultant,  Dharmarketing Strategic Social Impact

From Insight to Action: Using Social Marketing to Drive Collective Impact

Melissa K. Blair is a social marketing practitioner, community strategist, and doctoral researcher based in the Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada. She leads Dharmarketing Strategic Social Impact, where she helps partners design behaviour change initiatives, facilitation processes, and practical measurement that move communities from talk to action. Melissa serves as a Community Catalyst for Thrive Okanagan, supporting backbone functions, shared indicators, and cross-sector collaboration tied to a regional Goals for Well-Being framework. She is also an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Purppl, coaching social enterprises on growth, impact, and sustainable business models.

In higher education, Melissa is an Adjunct Professor at Brock University, teaching Social Marketing and Health Communication to MBA and MPH students, with a focus on audience insight, theory-informed design, and equity. She is a Doctor of Business Administration student at Royal Roads University. Her research explores how backbone teams apply social marketing and behavioural science within collective impact, with attention to equity, power-sharing, and community voice. Current work includes “Building Equity in Collective Impact: Skills, Tools, and Experiences of Backbone Teams,” and an applied stream on barriers to adopting social marketing in public health settings. 

Melissa contributes to the field through peer review and authorship, including work with Social Marketing Quarterly and an invited entry in the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Social Marketing on using digital technologies in social marketing. Across roles, she blends strategy, facilitation, and evidence to help organizations co-create solutions with the people most affected, and to translate insight into clear choices, helpful tools, and measurable results.

Tessa Wiehr

Sustainability Scholar, Metro Vancouver

From Throwaway to Reuse: Changing Behaviors for Zero Waste Food Service

Tessa Wiehr is dedicated to advancing circular economy solutions, waste reduction, and climate action through applied research, policy development, and organizational engagement. She holds a Master of Management from the UBC Sauder School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, Environment, and Sustainability, during which she completed an academic exchange in Geography at King’s College London. 

As a UBC Sustainability Scholar, Tessa researched the transition from single-use to reusable food service ware under the guidance and partnership of Metro Vancouver’s Solid Waste Services. Her project combined a literature review with business interviews and the development of policy templates, culminating in the publicly accessible report Case Studies and Policy Guidelines for Reusable Food Service Ware.  

During her studies, Tessa was actively engaged in advancing sustainability and climate action across campus. She supported faculty and program development as a Program Assistant at the UBC Sustainability Hub, represented graduate students on the Sustainability Hub Advisory Committee, and contributed to UBC Common Energy’s Green Infrastructure team. As a Sustainability Ambassador, she worked on projects addressing climate anxiety, intercultural engagement, and ecological resilience.  

Tessa now works with Vancouver Coastal Health’s Planetary Health team, supporting the launch of an organization-wide waste campaign. Outside of work, she recently returned from nine months of travel around the world and enjoys spending time outdoors hiking and camping with friends. 

At SPARKS, Tessa will present insights from her Scholars project, highlighting how businesses and policy can work together to influence consumer behavior and accelerate the shift toward reusable food service systems.

Alec Wu

Project Engineer, Zero Waste Implementation, Metro Vancouver 

From Throwaway to Reuse: Changing Behaviors for Zero Waste Food Service 

Alec Wu is a Professional Engineer and graduate from the University of Regina’s environmental systems engineering program. After trying out a number of industries including oil & gas, site remediation, and artificial intelligence, Alec made the switch to solid waste in order to work on local projects with an impact on his community. Alec works for Metro Vancouver in the Zero Waste Implementation team with a focus on repair and reuse projects. Outside of work, Alec enjoys music festivals. He is shocked by the amount of disposable plastics left on the ground at these events, which encourages him to further promote reuse. 

Megan Mills

Senior Account Director, DH

What do hittin’ the gym, coffee dates and video games have in common? People over 55

Megan is a public health communicator and social change driver at DH, where she leads some of the agency’s largest projects in the public and private sectors. This includes the “For Our Lives” campaign with the Washington State Health Care Authority’s Office of Tribal Affairs, designed to share culturally responsive information about the impact of fentanyl in Native communities. As you’ll hear about in this presentation, Meg also leads the “Find Your People” campaign in partnership with Department of Health Center for Health Promotion & Education that helps older adults 55+ connect with people of ages. Megan has led multiple campaigns on behalf of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with a focus on nutrition and food safety. She earned her Master of Public Administration from the George Washington University and recently served on the board of Fishline in Kitsap County. 

Jenny Almgren

Health Educator, Washington State Department of Health 

What do hittin’ the gym, coffee dates and video games have in common? People over 55  

Jenny Almgren has led social marketing campaigns aimed at promoting healthy behaviors for both the Washington State Department of Health and her local health department. With a focus on injury prevention and behavior change, she has developed strategies to encourage safer and healthier communities. Her work has included efforts to increase vaccine awareness, increase active transportation and reduce injury through community driven initiatives. She is passionate about using an audience focused approach and community engagement as tools for public health.

Becky Thomas

Account Supervisor, C+C

Localized CBSM Campaigns to Engage Teens: How Digital & IRL Tactics Work Together

Becky Thomas is a proud purpose-driven communications professional, applying 15 years of experience in journalism, marketing, and corporate communications to her social marketing work with clients at C+C. Over the course of her career, Becky has worked to share essential news in rural communities, contributed to national corporate brand strategies, partnered with clients in tech and healthcare, and led agency teams. Today she works to craft and implement behavior change strategies that move people, specializing in transportation, public health, and climate justice. In all her work, Becky strives to merge quality data with human ingenuity for campaigns that break through the noise with clarity and compassion. 

Rachel DeCordob

Program Manager, Youth Mobility Program, King County Metro

Localized CBSM Campaigns to Engage Teens: How Digitial & IRL Tactics Work Together

Rachel DeCordoba (she/her) is a Program Manager with King County Metro, where she promotes transit access and resources for youth and all people. Within Metro’s Youth Mobility Program, this includes engaging schools, leading student internships, developing transit education curriculum materials, and spreading the word that transit is free for everyone 18 and younger in Washington State.  

Rachel grew up riding transit in Seattle. Her winding path included studying environmental science at the University of Washington and urban sustainability at the University of Leeds in the UK, along with previous work in community engagement and local government sustainability. In her free time, you can find her watching musicals, dancing, and saying hi to every dog she sees. 

Leslie Tunmore

Vice President, GMMB

Is Authentic Connection through Social Media Possible? Learn how You Can centered youth experiences to support cannabis prevention efforts.

Leslie Tunmore is a public health professional who has supported various clients, such as the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Health Care Authority, through strategic planning, content development, and social media management to reach youth with substance use prevention and mental health promotion messages.

She helps to manage the You Can brand, centering youth voices and developing culture-centered approaches through co-creating content with priority population partners.

Adriana Avelar

Substance Use Prevention Health Educator, Washington State Department of Health

Is Authentic Connection through Social Media Possible? Learn how You Can centered youth experiences to support cannabis prevention efforts.

Adriana Avelar has been with the Washington State Department of Health for over 13 years and currently serves as a Substance Use Prevention Health Educator. In this role, she leads statewide youth cannabis prevention campaigns aimed at promoting healthy choices, reducing youth access and use through education and community engagement. 

Before stepping into this position a little over a year ago, Adriana worked across several public health programs, including immunizations, the Watch Me Grow program, and outbreak response during COVID-19. Her broad experience and dedication to community well-being continue to guide her prevention efforts. 

 When she’s not working, Adriana enjoys spending time with her two cats, Apollo and Rocky, who often keep her company while she works from home. 

Jan Kleszynski

Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications,  C+C

Transforming Health Care’s Response to Opioid Use Disorder

With over 20 years of experience, Jan’s commitment to leveraging marketing for societal good has defined her career. She has worked on causes such as increasing the adoption of energy-efficient products and practices, encouraging recycling and composting, the importance of traffic safety, the value of community banking, making higher education more accessible, and lowering the barriers to health care for patients with opioid use disorder. Jan is skilled in the art of leading cross-functional teams, and navigating between C+C’s market intelligence, multicultural communications, digital and creative teams to create a seamless experience for her clients. Her projects have garnered Telly and ADDY awards, seven Spotlight Awards from the Oregon Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), including campaign of the decade in 2024, and over a dozen awards from PRSA’s Puget Sound Chapter — including two Best in Shows. With Jan at the helm, expect a dash of quirk, a dollop of creativity, and a whole lot of awesomeness in every project.

Liz Wolkin

ScalaNW Program Manager, Washington State Health Care Authority

Transforming Health Care’s Response to Opioid Use Disorder

Liz Wolkin is a certified emergency nurse and harm reductionist living in Olympia, WA. They have lived experience with substance use disorder and have been supporting drug user health for over 20 years. Liz has worked as a hospital-based nursing educator and emergency department charge nurse and currently leads the new Washington State MOUD bridge program, ScalaNW. 

Griselda Martinez

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington

Engaging young adults through social media and community collaborations

Griselda Martinez is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington’s Center for the Study of Health and Risk Behaviors in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her research focuses on developmental patterns of substance use and mental health and related risk and protective factors over the course of adolescence and young adulthood. 

Mary Gerardo

Wastewater Engagement Program Manager, Seattle Public Utilities

Playing for the Seattle Team: Turning Soccer into Environmental Action

Mary Gerardo works at Seattle Public Utilities as the Wastewater Engagement Program Manager, using social marketing to empower residents to reduce wastewater pollutants and encourage positive behavior change. Her career has focused on community well-being, adult education, and public and environmental health. She holds a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Behavioral Sciences and Health Promotion. During her program, she helped expand CATCH, a child wellness organization, internationally by launching a healthy living pilot in Ecuador. The experience fueled her enthusiasm for guiding behavior change and developing transformative solutions

Lynn Knapp

Director of Communications & Engagement, Cascadia Consulting Group

Playing for the Seattle Team: Turning Soccer into Environmental Action

Lynn joined Cascadia in 2015 and is a director of Cascadia’s Communications & Engagement line of business. She manages some of the firm’s largest public-facing projects revolving around trainings and technical assistance, behavior change research and campaign implementation, community outreach and education, event logistics, and campaign strategy and evaluation. Her topical areas of expertise include waste prevention and reuse, wastewater, pollution prevention, and municipal recycling and composting. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and minor in Sociology from Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University.

Mindy Fitzgerald

Marketing Director, PRR

Centering community voices to drive change from within.

Mindy is a social marketing and communications professional with two decades of experience leading campaigns that drive behavior change and strengthen community engagement. She specializes in developing creative, research-based strategies that motivate action and deliver measurable impact for government, nonprofit, and consumer clients.

Her work spans a range of initiatives—from road safety and transportation demand management to menthol tobacco prevention and REAL ID awareness—combining strategic insight with compelling storytelling. Mindy’s campaigns have earned multiple awards from PRSA, the Communicator Awards, and IABC for excellence in communication and public engagement.

An active member of the Greater Seattle community, she serves on the board and as auction co-chair for the Seattle Animal Foundation and volunteers with the Seattle Animal Shelter and Ballard Food Bank. She is passionate about people, plants, and animals. Mindy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Washington.

Diana Steeble

Principal and National Healthcare Lead, PRR

Centering community voices to drive change from within.

With 26 years of experience, Diana is focused on delivering social marketing and health communications programs that are strengths-based and trauma-informed for effective behavior change. Diana is committed to using an equity lens in planning and communicating around social determinants of health. She strategically plans and guides implementation of health campaigns for public, private, and non-profit organizations relating to vaccination, mental and behavioral health, smoking cessation, road safety, environmental health, health screenings, access to healthcare, and outcomes of community-based participatory research. She and her team have won hundreds of local, national, and international awards for their work – most recently the Public Relations Society of America’s “best in show” at their national Silver Anvil awards. Connect with Diana at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsteeble/

Tamara Brunelle

Program Lead - Waste Outreach, City of Edmonds

One Small Asks for Social Diffusion

Tamara Brunelle is the Program Lead, Waste Outreach for the City of Edmonton. Tamara has worked for the City of Edmonton for over 20 years with the bulk of career focused on waste behaviour change including leading teams to adopt desired waste sorting behaviours, litter clean up and prevention projects, and volunteer coordination and engagement. Tamara leads the Waste Outreach team which is responsible for encouraging the citizens of Edmonton to sort their waste into food scraps, recycling and garbage through one-on-one conversations using a community-based social marketing framework. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Athabasca University.

Paola Maraville

Environmental Engagement Program Coordinator, The Bay Foundation

Navigating Behavior Change: A Community-Driven Approach to Cleaner Boating in Southern California

Paola Maravilla Montes De Oca is the Environmental Engagement Program Coordinator at The Bay Foundation, where she helps develop and implement programs to promote ecosystem health and climate resiliency. Her work focuses on key initiatives, including clean boating education, single-use plastic reduction, and community gardening outreach. She also co-leads TBF's communications, which includes social media content creation, newsletter production, and website upkeep. She is passionate about championing environmental stewardship. Paola holds a B.A. in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of California, Irvine, and has a background in native plant restoration. In her free time, she enjoys outdoor activities like hiking and beach visits, as well as baking and crafts.

Georgia Tunioli

Environmental Engagement Program Director, The Bay Foundation

Navigating Behavior Change: A Community-Driven Approach to Cleaner Boating in Southern California

Georgia Tunioli is a nonprofit leader who’s passionate about safeguarding ecosystems for all. She is the Environmental Engagement Program Director with The Bay Foundation (TBF), an organization dedicated to implementing nature-based solutions across Southern California. With TBF, she leads stewardship initiatives that enhance conservation. With over a decade of interdisciplinary experience spanning advocacy, research, and communications, Georgia is driven by action that recalibrates harmony between people and the living planet. She has advanced diverse endeavors with the Center for Biological Diversity, Garden of Life, Harmless Harvest, and more. She is a 2022 U.S. Accelerator for Women Environmental Leaders alumna with the Women's Earth Alliance and a 2024 participant in Coro Southern California’s Climate Resilience Leadership Network. She holds bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and International Relations from the University of Redlands and a certificate from Harvard Business School Online’s Power and Influence for Positive Impact course.

Andrea Ramirez

Sustainability Analyst, Zero Waste Washington

Reducing Laundry detergent Use and Chemical Pollution Through Community-Driven Messaging

Andrea Ramirez is a Sustainability Analyst at Zero Waste Washington, where she tackles environmental health challenges, integrating research and education on the exposure to toxic chemicals from products and other sources. Andrea holds a degree in Chemical Engineering and has always been passionate about solving problems while looking for sustainable alternatives. She has worked on Research and Development projects within the Food and Beverages industry and decided to focus her professional journey on studying products and materials to minimize environmental impacts driven by data and circular design. Andrea has also participated as a volunteer in several projects in Venezuela and Argentina and really enjoys the impact she can see directly from community-based initiatives. While keeping her time dedicated to sustainability matters, you’ll likely find Andrea practicing yoga or embracing the outdoors activities wherever she is, hiking, camping, running, or exploring national parks are some of her favorite hobbies.