Events

Melissa Bowles-Terry is a professor and library liaison to the College of Sciences at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Melissa is the former Director of the Faculty Center at UNLV, where she coordinated programming to support faculty teaching, research, and career development. She also previously served as Head of Educational Initiatives at UNLV Libraries. Melissa earned a Master's degree in Library and Information Science at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Arts in English at Utah State University.

Lisa Christensen is the Director of Learning Design and Innovation at McKinsey & Company, leading a global team to innovate exceptional learning and leadership development offerings. She founded and heads McKinsey’s Learning Research and Innovation lab, translating academic research into cutting-edge learning practices. A recognized thought leader, Lisa has authored influential articles on intentional learning, modern apprenticeship, and feedback culture, showcasing her commitment to science-backed innovation.

Shambhavi Gupta brings nearly 15 years of customer experience and innovation expertise, boasting a distinguished track record of delivering exceptional results for global industry leaders. Her specialisation in storytelling, conceptualisation, service and system thinking, and digital innovation sets her apart as a visionary in her field. Currently heading the Experience Design and Innovation team at Incedo Inc. in India, Shambhavi oversees some of the company's largest and most critical clients.

Grace Brumley is an LA-based art and creative director known for her expertise in photography and design direction. Over her decade-long career, she has blended strategic thinking with creative storytelling to bring brands to life across digital, social, print, and experiential. Grace has partnered with a diverse range of clients, from innovative Bay Area startups like Everlane, True Botanicals, and Thirdlove, to some of the world's largest retail giants.

Jason Hemerka is a Senior Creative Operations Lead at Hinge Health, where he is currently scaling the Growth Creative team while developing key prioritization strategies to support growth marketing programs. With well over a decade of experience ranging from small and large ad agencies, such as Crispin Porter Bogusky, to startups and big tech, Jason honed his skills at companies like Apple, where he led marketing projects for Apple Music, and at Lyft, where he helped build and scale their first Growth Creative team.

Brandi Johnson’s career started in photojournalism and took wild and windy trips through social media, copywriting, makeup artistry, podcasting, video production and creative project management. She’s led campaigns for Verizon, AT&T, Dell, PWC, and AMD at previous jobs, but it’s her work as Sr Creative Ops Manager at Indeed developing and transforming creative processes that keeps her fueled these days. As a self-described mashup of Hermione Granger and Mickey Mouse, Brandi enjoys bringing humor and magic to even the most complex challenges.

Before joining NatWest, I spent most of my career organising and managing creative teams. I started in photo studios, moved on to museum design and most recently I built and led the Design Ops team at the strategic design consultancy, Nile. I love turning chaos into order, finding solutions and supporting great, inclusive design.