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Joan Michelson      

Co-Host of the Electric Ladies Podcast, ESG Consultant, Business Sustainability & Leadership Expert

Joan Bryna Michelson, MBA is a highly accomplished journalist, executive, speaker and ESG consultant who has worked with top media organizations, and driven breakthrough results at Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, and government agencies. Her specialties are: innovation, business, leadership, climate-energy-sustainability issues, Environment- Social- Governance (ESG) issues, women’s advancement and careers.

Michelson hosts the Electric Ladies podcast (formerly known as Green Connections Radio), which USA Today chose as one of the top six podcasts for business travelers. Michelson hosts the acclaimed podcast (formerly known as Green Connections Radio), where she does engaging and fascinating interviews with women innovators and leaders in ESG and the energy-climate space across industries, government, academia, media, and nonprofits (360+ episodes).

She writes regularly for Forbes, especially on ESG-related issues, and her work has appeared in various other top media outlets including: the Harvard Business Review, HuffPost, CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” TheAtlantic.com, Greenbiz, The Washington Post, The New Economy magazine, Life & Style magazine, WTOP-FM, as a columnist in a regional business journal chain, ABC News and on ""The Crusaders"" and television specials on NBC.

A dynamic public speaker, Michelson has addressed many events and conferences, including at: The Newseum, SXSW (Eco), the Defense Department, the U.S. Naval Academy, the National Institutes of Health, the 92nd Street Y, Corporate Responsibility Association, Clean Tech Open (Southeast), the Small Business Administration, Greenbiz VERGE, Global Council for Science and the Environment’s conferences, MOVE Mobility Re-Imagined conferences, National Association of Women Business Owners, Executive Women in Government, Women Impacting Public Policy, Zonta International (world’s oldest women’s organization), Women Automotive Network, Media Rise Festival, and various chambers of commerce, corporate, industry and university events. She is an International Speaker with the U.S. State Department and can be found in various speakers’ bureaus.

Michelson has been on the forefront of the ESG-based economy, before it was labeled as such. She spent many years in management consulting at Deloitte and American Express, and led communications and co-led sales and marketing at Chrysler’s Global Electric Motorcars. Today, Michelson’s consulting work focuses on strategically advancing ESG issues – environment, social and governance issues – and partnerships across companies across sectors, organizations and governments that seek to generate financial and societal benefit through values-based leadership and addressing pressing global and economic issues, including climate change, clean energy and women’s economic empowerment.

Michelson was nominated for a White House Champion of Change Award by the U.S. Department of Energy, was a finalist for the prestigious C3E Women in Energy Award, and has garnered awards from the: Society of Professional Journalists (DC), Broadcasters Association, International Association of Business Communicators, American Marketing Association, and the Public Relations Society of America. She has been an Adjunct Professor in the Communications and Journalism Department of Columbia Union College in Maryland, a judge for the Online News Association Awards, and is actively involved in the community, focused on a clean-green economy, press freedom, and women’s advancement.

Michelson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of California Los Angeles, a Master of Business Administration from Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York in the executive program, and has done various post-graduate studies – including at Harvard Business School, New School University in media management and The Aspen Institute.

Michelson is also a descendant of three prominent siblings: Albert A. Michelson was the first scientist from the U.S. to win the Nobel Prize; Charles Michelson was President Franklin D. Roosevelt's White House Communications Director/Press Secretary; and Miriam Michelson was a prominent national reporter who literally kept the women’s suffrage movement in the headlines and was a best-selling fiction author whose work is considered source material for “Wonder Woman” comics.

Speech Topics


Welcome to the ESG Economy

The Hidden Power(s) of the ESG Economy

Hire the Outliers

The Missing Piece in the 21st Century Economy

Reducing Risk & Increasing Reward With ESG

The Key To Recruiting & Retaining Women

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Finding New Career & Business Opportunities in the New Economy

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