What does it take to navigate change, find your voice and turn expertise into action? This month’s Innovation Women featured speakers bring their own answers, drawing on experience in everything from technology and public policy to leadership, storytelling, women’s empowerment and LinkedIn strategy. Innovation Women spotlights women and other underrepresented voices from its speaker database, connecting audiences with speakers who have ideas and experiences worth sharing. Meet our featured speakers:
Cam Kashani | Dr. of Spirituality & Transformational Speaker at Divinus LVX
Cam Kashani, SSD, MBA, is a transformational speaker, author, podcast host and women’s empowerment and conscious leadership expert. Often called “The Spiritual Surgeon,” she holds a doctorate in spirituality, an MBA in entrepreneurship and marketing and a certification in spiritual psychology. A serial entrepreneur, Cam has built four companies, including Coloft, which she co-founded in 2010 as Los Angeles’ first coworking space for technology startups and entrepreneurs. During her four years with Coloft, the community grew to more than 1,800 alumni, including Uber LA, Instacart and Fullscreen, earning her the title “Godmother of Silicon Beach.” She has also coached hundreds of people, reached thousands through her speaking, and served as an Expert Speaker with the U.S. State Department, traveling to Kuwait and Bahrain to empower women and youth.
Cam’s work is rooted in a passion for helping women recognize their own power and potential. That purpose became especially clear after she lost her marriage and business and became a single mother to twin toddlers. Nine months later, she was speaking to women in Kuwait through the State Department, an experience that helped her see how her own pain could become a source of purpose and power. Through her work at Divinus LVX, she helps women transform wounds into wisdom and reconnect with their authentic power.
Deborah Stine | Founder, Science and Technology Policy Academy; Senior Fellow, InnovateUS 
Dr. Deborah D. Stine is a nationally recognized science and technology keynote speaker, policy expert, educator, author and founder of the Science and Technology Policy Academy. A former White House and Congressional staffer, she has worked across national, state, local and community policy environments, including as Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in the Obama White House, Specialist in Science and Technology Policy at the Congressional Research Service, Study Director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and Professor of the Practice in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also a senior fellow at InnovateUS, where she develops and delivers live training programs for public-sector professionals. Deborah holds a Ph.D. in public policy analysis and public administration, an MBA and a B.S. in mechanical and environmental engineering. She is an AAAS Fellow and recipient of the Carnegie Science Communication Award.
Deborah’s passion is helping scientific and technical experts and communities with lived experience work together to inform policy, shape decisions and create impact on the societal challenges and opportunities they care about. Her speaking draws on her “skills, stories, and spaces” approach: translating research, data and analysis into evidence for action; connecting policy choices to lived experience; and grounding evidence in the communities decision-makers serve. One concept she shares with audiences is “The Data We Dismiss,” which explores how anecdotes, understood through the lens of skills, stories and spaces, can be as essential as scientific and technical data when addressing complex challenges. She is the author of *From Expertise to Impact: A Practical Guide to Informing and Influencing Science and Technology Policy* and speaks on topics ranging from science and technology policy in the age of AI to helping communities make informed decisions about AI data centers.
View Deborah’s speaker profile.
Helen Jonsen | Storyteller, Speaker, Emcee, Host and Interviewer
Helen Jonsen is a storyteller, speaker, emcee, host, workshop facilitator and interviewer with a “kaleidoscope career”—a nonlinear path shaped by curiosity, disruption and constant evolution. Her career has taken her through newsrooms, startups, nonprofits, public agencies and multiple media platforms, from covering breaking news in New York and writing scripts in moving cars to navigating newsroom chaos during ferry crashes and pandemics. She has also worked with mission-driven organizations to help their people become better storytellers and ambassadors, bringing the same curiosity and drive to make things better wherever she works.
Helen is the author of This Kaleidoscope Career: Empowering Women to Build Unconventional Careers and Redefine Success and host of the “This Kaleidoscope Career” podcast, where she shares stories from women who have charted their own unpredictable paths. She has raised four children while managing serious health challenges at home, experiences that have shaped her perspective on the messy, ever-evolving nature of careers and success. Her passion is to normalize the nonlinear career while giving people the tools to become confident, memorable speakers and ambassadors who can amplify and impact their missions. Her work combines warmth, humor and hard-earned wisdom to connect with women who have led, leapt, juggled, started over or started something big.
Melissa K. Range | Confidence & Leadership Consultant at REV Up Your Life, LLC
Melissa K. Range grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, as one of three daughters. Her father, who lived with polio, never allowed it to limit his goals and went on to become a successful businessman. He instilled in his children a strong work ethic, deep-rooted faith and a “never give up” attitude. Melissa followed that example through sports and a career in corporate America, first as an international customer salesperson using her fluency in Spanish and later as an executive pharmaceutical representative. After becoming a mother of three, her marriage began to fracture, and she made the decision to leave. The years that followed led her to focus on healing and spiritual study, including learning more about the subconscious mind, developing her intuition and rebuilding her life around her own values.
As Melissa began rebuilding her life, she saw that many people were looking for greater clarity, self-worth and a stronger sense of personal power. She began teaching the practices that had helped her, including intuitive awareness, self-care, emotional courage and self-compassion. Today, she helps individuals reconnect with their inner wisdom, make choices that reflect what they truly want and build greater confidence. Much of her work focuses on empowering women to strengthen their relationship with money and worthiness, set healthy boundaries and stop putting their own needs and goals last. She is especially passionate about helping women move from fear to confidence by learning to trust themselves and pursue their goals with greater clarity.
View Melissa’s speaker profile.
Donna P. Mitchell | CEO and The Transformation Authority at Mitchell Universal Network, LLC
Donna P. Mitchell is The Transformation Authority, a Forbes Business Council member, published author and CEO of Mitchell Universal Network, LLC. She has 49 years of experience across regulated industries, including telecommunications, aviation and airline management, health care and pharmaceuticals and emerging technology. Her work has focused on technology adoption and organizational transformation, enabling more than 150,000 professionals through enterprise-scale change. Her experience includes four types of transformation: divestiture, deregulation, digital transformation and emerging technology adoption. She has worked through major technology shifts from the Bell System to blockchain, giving her a broad perspective on the challenges organizations face when adopting new technology.
Donna is the author of Pivoting to Technology Adoption: Mind the Gap and hosts the IAB-certified “Pivoting to Technology Adoption” podcast, which has more than 120 episodes and listeners in 64 countries. She delivers keynotes, executive briefings, workshops and executive advisory engagements for corporate, health care and mission-driven leaders. Her focus is on the gap between implementing new technology and getting people to actually adopt it. As she puts it, technology transformations often fail not because the technology doesn’t work, but because the adoption strategy doesn’t. She is passionate about helping executives recognize and address that gap before it affects their budgets and business goals.
Brenda Meller | Chief Engagement Officer & LinkedIn Marketing Coach at Meller Marketing
Brenda Meller is an international speaker, emcee and Chief Engagement Officer at Meller Marketing. A self-described introvert, she has spent more than 15 years helping professionals use LinkedIn with greater confidence and less confusion. Her signature PIE Framework—Profile Optimization, Invitation and Messaging Strategy and Engage Your Network—gives professionals a practical approach to improving their profiles, building connections and engaging their networks. She speaks to corporations, sales teams, executives and self-employed professionals across industries, with past audiences including the Cleveland Clinic, Detroit Economic Club, DOMOTEX USA and the Legal Marketing Association.
Brenda is the author of the best-selling book Social Media Pie: How to Enjoy a Bigger Slice of LinkedIn and host of the “Enthusiastically Self-Employed” podcast. Her approach to LinkedIn is designed to be accessible to both beginners and experienced users, creating what she calls a “judgment-free zone” where attendees can learn without feeling overwhelmed. She is passionate about helping professionals claim a bigger slice of the LinkedIn pie and build confidence online. Outside of her work, Brenda enjoys spending time with her family and rescue dog, Pepper, and supports the American Cancer Society and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
View Brenda’s speaker profile.
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