Focusing on Purpose: Adapting to Values-Based Spending and Resonating with Multicultural Audiences

Justin Joffe is the Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief at Ragan Communications where he oversees the editorial strategy for Ragan across brands and products. In addition to his editorial duties, Joffe also advises the programming team on best-in-class conferences, webinars and workshops during a time of unprecedented change in the way that communicators and marketers learn and meet. He is also a freelance journalist and communications writer specializing in the arts and culture, media and technology, and ad tech beats. Before joining the Ragan team, Joffe worked for Muck Rack, PR News, and The Observer. Additionally, his writing has appeared in several publications including Vulture, Newsweek, Vice, Relix, Flaunt, and many more. You can find him on X @joffaloff.

Cat Colella-Graham is the Founder of Cheer Partners, an employee experience agency designed to revolutionize the day-to-day life of an organization’s most important stakeholders – their employees. In her deep experience as a Chief Human Resources Officer and Internal Communications expert, Cat saw a gap that needed to be bridged to drive forward a holistic employee experience. She foresaw that a new generation of employees were finding their voices and that companies would need to change the frameworks in which they communicate and engage with employees. Cheer Partners was founded to address this growing need. Cheer Partners is brought into organizations to define the employer value proposition through a proprietary Cultural DNA Assessment and build a bespoke employee experience that drives high-productivity and business results. Cat has created offerings to attract, engage and inspire employees to deliver best-in-class engagement results. Her extensive knowledge spans corporate culture, internal communications, diversity, equity and inclusion practices, talent development and change management. Cat is known for being a trusted C-Suite advisor to Fortune 100 leaders. Prior to founding Cheer Partners, Cat was the Executive Vice President and Global Head of People and Acquisitions at Ruder Finn and the Chief People Officer at Clever Devices. Cat was also the Senior Vice-President and Global Director of Human Resources and Recruiting at Cohn & Wolfe, a WPP company, Rubenstein Public Relations’ first HR Director and a Management Consultant in the Change Management Division of Accenture. Cat is a member of Forbes Human Resources Council, a co-founder of the Diversity Marketing Consortium and a mentor with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. Cat is also a Senior Advisor to Benedictine University L.E.A.D.S program. She frequently guest lectures at Georgetown and NYU and is a volunteer TED translator in four languages. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, a master’s degree from Cornell University and is a Harvard Business School Executive Education alumna.

Trovon C. Williams is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he leads the planning, development and implementation of all the association’s marketing and communications strategies, branding and public relations activities. Williams has more than 14 years of experience leading award-winning marketing, communication and brand development strategies both domestically and internationally across the technology, higher-education and government industries. Prior to joining the NAACP, Williams served as Chief Marketing Officer at Perfecta, where he led the company’s global marketing and communications efforts and brand expansion from government focus to commercial enterprise service offering. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at the College of Southern Maryland, and before that, held senior marketing and communications roles with Iridium Communications, Citrix Systems, and the Bureau of ATF. Williams was inducted into the Hampton University Alumni Association’s “Top 40 under 40” Alumni Society in 2017. He is a member of the Forbes Communications Council, American Marketing Association and is also a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.