Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Track IV: Marina Vista - Live Webcast from this Room

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

A Women’s Vision of Wellness: Empowering Lifestyle through Community - From Social Media, Books & TV to Books and All forms of Media

Melissa Hanna, founder/CEO, Mahmee

Holli Thompson, President, Nutritional Style

Dr. Doerthe Brueggmann, co-founder, Health Goes Female

Kate Neligan, Founder/CEO of Synergy TV - a Mindful Media Entertainment company

Valerie Alexander, author, How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having "Female Brains")

Claudia Christian, Actress, Founder, The C Three Foundation

Mariana Danilovic, Managing Director, Hollywood Portfolio, Moderator

Tiffany & Co.  become a Health Coach and nutrition/wellness author?  Who goes from being a fashionista, to a nutritionista? Holli Thompson.  After years of struggling with recurring ailments ,  and a cavalcade of doctors with endless prescription medications,  Holli said enough! Out of desperation, she sought “alternative” holistic help.  Holli’s experience triggered a dramatic change in her lifestyle and career path, and a return to school. She founded Nutritional Style, is now a critically acclaimed Natural Health Practitioner, and a Board Certified Health Coach with a who’s-who clientele in fashion, beauty, media, not for profit, and Fortune 500.  In her book, Discover Your Nutritional Style (Sunrise River Press), Holli shares key learnings from her transformation to good health, making them accessible through an individualized approach, or, “bio individuality”.  She’s identified three nutrional styles: the Healthy Omnivore, the Flexible Vegetarian and the Modern Vegan - unique blueprints for personal wellness accompanied by a reasonable, seasonal approach to cooking and eating.  Holli is sought out as a featured guest, columnist and presenter. She has appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, “Style” FX, is a regular on the show “Let’s Talk Live” (ABC’s DC affiliate). She’s been featured in the Huffington Post, More magazine, and USA Today and was a contributing author to “Optimism! An Anthology” along with Kofi Anan, Bono and Michelle Obama.  Her speaking engagements include GOOGLE, the American Heart Association, Less Cancer, and the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Dr. Doerthe Brueggmann, co-founder, Health Goes Female; Dr. Doerthe Brueggmann is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist with an MD/PdD degree serving as Assistant Professor of Research at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine, USC. She is also the student instructor at the renowned private research hospital as well as the scientific mentor to residents. Brueggmann founded Health Goes Female (http://www.healthgoesfemale.com) with fellow MDs Jenny M. Jaque and Claire Templeman after the three became aware of the dire need for accurate, relevant and reliable information and health education (their books include Infection & Protection, Ready-Set-Push, Me? No Pause! and 1-2-3 Puberty).

Claudia Christian is a renown actress, writer, singer, musician and director, known by audiences around the world for her more than 120 appearances on film and TV and a favorite of many avid science fiction fans for her role as Commander Susan Ivanova, on the long running television series Babylon 5. Claudia has written several books, both fiction and non-fiction—including her 2012 hit memoir Babylon Confidential in which she chronicles her decade-long battle with alcoholism.  She continues to work in film and television, recently appearing in Grimm, Criminal Minds, Mentalist, Castle and more, but she is focused on promoting The Sinclair Method, the most successful long-term treatment for alcoholism in the world. Claudia is an advocate for the treatment and in 2013 launched The C Three Foundation to raise awareness about the method. In 2014 she produced the award winning documentary "One Little Pill” which is based on her journey on The Sinclair Method and follows people who she has put on it, in addition to explaining the science behind this life saving treatment. The Sinclair Method has been gradually accepted by many as an option to treat alcohol dependency and minimize the often devastating effects that this cause on people's lives. www.cthreefoundation.org

Melissa Hanna is the founder/CEO of Mahmee, a digital healthcare company that provides on-demand services to new moms and their infants. She has been an operations and strategy consultant to startups in healthcare, education, digital media and consumer goods. Melissa founded her first business Audist Entertainment, a live event production company, at age fifteen and later founded the Little Spoon Desserts Truck, LA's first dessert shop on wheels, upon graduating from Pomona College. Prior to launching Mahmee, Melissa served as Assistant Director of the Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center at Columbia Business School and is now completing her JD/MBA at Southwestern Law School and the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.

Kate Neligan is a Life and Career Coach & Founder of Synergy TV. Her coaching company, Conscious Rockstar, empowers women and men to create lives that rock. Kate’s specialty is working with corporate groups and individuals in equine coaching; where she partners with horses that serve as mirrors to help people grow in self-awareness. Together, they teach and train people to develop effective communication and leadership skills that lead to success in all areas of life. Kate also has a passion for sharing transformational and uplifting stories which she does through her mindful media entertainment company Synergy TV® (www.synergytvnetwork.com). She has curated hundreds of awe-inspiring short videos that mirror a better world and offers "The Weekly Awe" e-newsletter which uplifts a conscious community of thousands every week. Previously, Kate was the Vice President of Digital Marketing at Lionsgate where she promoted thousands of films and created successful partnerships with iTunes, Comcast, DIRECTV, Xbox and many more. Kate holds a Master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica and her personal story on trailblazing can be found in the book “Women Will Save the World” and the upcoming book “The Power of Being a Woman.” Kate is a Huffington Post blogger and a motivational speaker with a TEDx talk entitled “The Pursuit of Perfection.” Receive free coaching tips at www.consciousrockstar.com.

Valerie Alexander, author, How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having "Female Brains"):  Valerie Alexander is the author of "Happiness as a Second Language: A Guidebook to Achieving Lasting, Permanent Happiness," and the forthcoming book, "Success as a Second Language: A Guidebook for Defining and Achieving Personal Success." She writes for a number of media outlets, including Jezebel and WomenNetwork.com, and her articles on The Huffington Post have been viewed more than 3 million times.  As a screenwriter, Valerie has worked with Joel Schumacher, Catherine Zeta Jones, Barry Sonnenfeld, Ice Cube and others. She co-wrote, produced and directed the award-winning short film, "Making the Cut," produced and directed the compelling PSA campaigns, "The Wedding Matters," "Life Support," and "Say I Do" to advocate for marriage equality, and will soon be directing the faith-based feature film, "Rounding Third," starring Kevin Sorbo.  As a professional speaker, Valerie travels the country with her entertaining and informative talks, "How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace (Despite Having Female Brains)" and her inspirational "Speak Happiness!" series of workshops and keynotes, helping companies, employees, entrepreneurs, artists and others stay positive, move forward, increase productivity and maximize profits by making happiness a priority.   Valerie spent her pre-Hollywood career in the Silicon Valley where she worked on some of the most important transactions of the Internet era as a securities lawyer, an investment banker and V.P. of Business Development at two new media start-ups.  Valerie received her B.A. from Trinity University and her J.D. and M.S. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. In the spring of 2010, she was invited back to Berkeley Law to teach the legal ethics seminar, "Representation of Law in Film."  She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, writer-producer Rick Alexander, and their ill-mannered German Shepherd, Pepper.

Mariana Danilovic, CEO, hollywood portfolio:  Ms. Danilovic is the Founder and CEO of hollywood portfolio, an incubator and accelerator that develops and operates entertainment, digital media, and technology companies. Through hollywood portfolio, Ms. Danilovic launched and helped develop several digital media companies, and served as the President, CEO and Director of ultralivetv, serves on the Board of Directors of reframeit (observer), and the Board of Directors of Emerge Digital.   Ms. Danilovic was the EVP Business Development for NTN Buzztime, Inc. (AMEX:NTN) and Head of Business Development, Content Aggregation and Programming for MediaZone, broadband video company owned by NASPERS/MIH media conglomerate. She also founded and directed the Digital Media Incubator at KPMG LLP, which developed about two-dozen digital media companies. The companies Ms. Danilovic helped develop received institutional funding from KPCB, Sequoia Capital, Hummer-Winblad, Constellation Partners, Softbank, North Star Ventures, HP, and Intel.   Ms. Danilovic headed business development for Peter Guber’s Mandalay Entertainment and was on the management team of the venture fund at Sony Pictures Entertainment, investing in media companies worldwide. Ms. Danilovic also worked for Michael Milken’s Knowledge Exchange and at the Twentieth Century Fox International Television Group. She serves on the Board of Directors of C3, the Arts and Media Node of the Millennium Project, served on the Board of Directors of the Producers’ Guild of America, and is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.   She previously served on the Board of Directors of Tim Draper’s Zone Club and was a member of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan's Digital Coast Roundtable. Mariana earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, with a Minor in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, San Diego.