Join Our Team of Rock Stars!
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Mikella Chrisman
Executive Director
Mikella’s super power is taking organizations to the next level through grant writing, donor outreach programs, scaleable systems / operations management, and analytics. She graduates from Indiana Wesleyan’s MBA program in December 2022.
As executive director at New Foundations Transitional Living, she took a struggling nonprofit for addiction recovery solutions and turned it into the first Medical Assisted Treatment housing group (8 houses with 150 beds) in Cincinnati with millions of dollars in revenue and support from local government and law enforcement officials.
Mikella’s high tech security background in the U.S. Army prepared her for the post-pandemic virtual work environment. Her unique skillsets are focused on jumpstarting Herizon Music’s all-female musician/DJ marketplace, with the goal of taking it from a local pilot program to a national service and brand.
Fun facts: Mikella is a fitness instructor, a Nicki Minaj super fan, and big sister to Cincinnati Bengal’s kicker Drue Chrisman.
Thea Wood
Board of Directors, President
Thea has over 30 years experience in the corporate and start-up worlds with an emphasis on female empowerment and music. She decided it was time to “shift back and give back” in 2018 and the foundation and podcast became a reality within six months thanks to her diverse expertise and ability to pull together a lean but mighty group of experts. Career highlights include:
- Content programmer to executive level, working with record labels, national music magazines, Viacom, and more.
- Managing Editor and contributor for newspapers and international trade magazines
- Publisher/Owner of SheSpark (an international digital magazine for women)
- TEDx speaker
- Certified image consultant
Thea tinkers on the piano and guitar, sings joyously in the car (much to her family’s dismay), and supports live music.
Joy Lakin
Secretary
Joy Lakin has an extensive background in classical music and an immense love for the arts, music especially. She earned a Bachelors degree in Music Education from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, and has sung professionally at venues across the globe, including the Washington National Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall.
After teaching music and singing professionally post-undergrad, she embarked on the path to becoming an arts advocate, which brought her to Los Angeles, CA to pursue a Juris Doctor in Entertainment and Media Law. Joy graduated with her JD in 2021, where she was the Commencement National Anthem singer, and currently works in legal technology.
In her free time, Joy loves spending time with her partner and two dogs, watching a good film, and jamming with friends. She is honored to be a part of the HMF team!
Amanda Meyer
Treasurer
Amanda has deep expertise as a finance and operations executive within several industries including Technology, Accounting, Recruiting, Engineering and other professional services. This diversity allows her to transfer concepts into industries where they do not traditionally bubble up and she is very excited to exercise this muscle in the Music industry with Herizon. Amanda is also a huge champion of women in leadership and gets charged up when given a challenge. Nothing is more fun to her than a problem to solve or an endeavor to see through to completion. More than anything, Amanda enjoys helping people however she can and usually in a very concrete way. She holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business, where she graduated with Honors.
In her free time, Amanda enjoys reading, writing and playing sports, particularly tennis and golf. She is passionate about listening to music and actually prefers it to television. Amanda does not have any musical talent, but does believe she might be able sing after a glass of wine.
Grace Lanni
Board of Directors
Grace is the sought-after Why Your Brand needs a Cause in 2022 speaker empowering entrepreneurs to weave their cause authentically into their brand to inspire their followers to support their cause.
Grace continually stretches the cutting edge of personal/professional branding as Founder, CEO of AllAboutThatBrand.com. Originally trained as a Biomed/Electrical engineer, her first CEO $MM venture was software as a service in ‘2001. Grace’s All About That Brand podcast is internationally award-winning. As an Executive Producer, her docuseries is scheduled to appear on Amazon Prime April ’22. Her newest film project, GivingOutLoud, premiered at SXSW ’22.
Grace (singer/keyboardist) plays gigs with her guitarist husband at local ATX venues.
Mary Beth Appleton
Board of Directors
Mary Beth is a builder. She gets excited to see a quality product get out into the world that brings communities together. MB enjoys pitching in, meeting people, and figuring out how to reach a common goal. She’s worked in media sales and management (including NBC, ABC, and Fox) for 25 years and worked on political campaigns for another 10.
Fun Fact: MB loves public speaking and performing. She’s given plenty of speeches and toasts, performed in quite a few improv shows, done a smattering of stand up, sang at open mic nights, and accompanied her school choir on the piano. “All of them scared me, and doing all of them anyway has made me stronger and ready for more!”
Christine Greeneisen
Board of Directors, Director/Agent
As a founding partner of Search Plus International, Christine’s industry knowledge comes from a broad-based career in the automotive, aerospace, defense, and medical industries. A graduate of Lawrence Technological University in Industrial Management, she has built her executive search practice around industry leadership with state, national, and international clients and is a proponent of advancing female professionals.
Christine is a supporter and volunteer for several philanthropic organizations and past Board member of The Detroit (Michigan) Science Center, and Michigan FIRST Robotics. She enjoys traveling and reading historical fiction as well as watching black-and-white films.
Michael Smith
Advisory Board
Michael is an avid consumer of live music, spending an inordinate amount of time chasing his favorite bands around the world at the cost of necessary home improvements. His mildly supportive wife of 26 years, who really wants new kitchen floors, tolerates Michael’s passion and sometimes tags along appreciating the Delta Platinum Medallion status he has earned. As a malcontent youth, Michael played bass in a number of groups honing his skills at various battle of the bands throughout the hotbed of live music, Southern New Hampshire, before matriculating to college in Philadelphia. It is in Philadelphia where Michael’s musical tastes and sensibilities expanded while again playing in a number of groups, concluding with the only popular among friends Happy Fernandez.
Michael now lives a fairly quiet life on the South Shore of Massachusetts, spending the majority of his leisure (when not traveling to concerts – see above) listening to vinyl, reading rock biographies, and walking his dog. Occasionally, he checks his texts messages which invariably results in him having to Venmo money to one of his three children. Michael also works as a tax attorney for a publicly traded company, sometimes daydreaming of the televisions he never got to throw out of the penthouse suites as a touring rock star.
Bianca Garcia
Social Media Manager
Bianca graduated in 2022 from Texas State University (making the Dean’s List!) with a B.S. in Sociology and a minor in Business Administration.
After completing an internship with Herizon Music, founder Thea Wood asked Bianca to join the team as social media coordinator. Since that time, she has overseen a team of interns, redesigned the public newsletter, assisted in the Phase I launch of the all-female music marketplace, coordinated all social media content (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and LinkedIn), and helped book/promote live-streamed artist showcases.
For fun, Bianca sees live music and is a World Wrestling Entertainment fan. Plus, she’s a devoted auntie to her nieces.
Interns/Volunteers
Our volunteers are passionate about gender equity in the music industry and uplifting the next generation of female music makers. We would love for you to join this growing group of rock stars! Major thanks go to:
Kaley Vande Voorde
Kiara Vasquez
Kristi Loach
Pamela Sierra
Qixiang Tong
Sofia Valverde
Victoria Artale
