Melissa Harris’ job is to make her clients unforgettable. She founded and runs Clio Award-winning marketing agency M. Harris & Co. The firm specializes in science communications, especially climate, advanced technology and public health. With Pulitzer Prize winner Mary Schmich, she also founded media company Mary & Melissa Productions, which will release its first project, a 7-part podcast based on Studs Terkel's book, Division Street: America, in January 2025. PRX and WBEZ Chicago will distribute the show.Her book, Everybody Needs an Editor, co-authored with Jenn Bane and published by Simon & Schuster, was named among the Top 100 nonfiction books, Top 40 business books and Top 5 marketing books of 2024 by the Non-Obvious and Porchlight Business Book awards. And she also teaches the course, Building a New Venture, as an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business every summer. If it isn't obvious, she thrives at warp speed. That's because she began her career as a journalist, capping 15 years in media as a business columnist for the Chicago Tribune. While earning her MBA from Booth, Melissa joined a real estate private equity firm, where as vice president of marketing she helped raise more than $70 million and launched its online investing platform. Melissa holds degrees from the University of Chicago (MBA), Johns Hopkins University (MA Government) and Northwestern University (BS Journalism). She also serves as a governing board member for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.Melissa and her husband live with their two children in Chicago’s North Center neighborhood. She can be reached at melissa@mharris.com.