Melissa is an award-winning social entrepreneur with a passion for adapting innovative PR solutions to campaigns that solve social problems. Melissa is the co-founder and creative director of Yulu Public Relations Inc., a top-ranked Vancouver PR agency with a mandate to “do great by doing good.” The agency is dedicated to working with companies that think beyond the bottom line, with a strong sustainable and social impact.

Prior to co-founding Yulu, Melissa began her PR career a decade ago while living in New York City where she worked with leading brands such as St. Regis Resorts, Patron Silver Tequila and TRUMP. Though social enterprise and lifestyle public relations is what takes up much of Melissa’s time, technology and real estate PR have been a bit of a beat in her career since she got into the game.

Today, Melissa sits on the board for World Housing, a social enterprise dedicated to housing families who live in third-world dump communities. In 2011, she was appointed as Chair of Communications on the board for Urban Land Institute BC, an organization dedicated to sustainable use of urban land space. The following summer, Melissa was the recipient of an international Stevie Award, taking home the Gold for “Best PR Campaign of the Year” for her work with the charity F-Cancer. That same year, at 28, she was ranked by Marketing Magazine as one of Canada’s 30 under 30 marketing industry pros who are shaping Canada’s PR industry.

A native New Mexican, Melissa holds strong to her roots and will challenge anyone to a chili cook-off. Takers, anyone?