Welcome to the WELL Summit
The WELL Summit is all about empowering you to live your most fulfilling life, both personally and professionally. We practice 360° Wellness. 360° Wellness is about looking at your wellness from a holistic standpoint. It's about nutrition and fitness, but it's also your relationships, your mental health and being mindful. It's taking care of the environment as a whole and your personal environment where you live and work. It's about taking into consideration your personal care products and what you clean your home with. 360° of Wellness is everything that helps you to live a healthier and more fulfilling life.
The WELL Summit was designed for you if you:
- Care about your health and are looking to make positive life changes
- Want to create the safest environment for you, your family and your loved ones
- Strive to be around like-minded individuals who can help you to reach your health goals
You should attend the WELL Summit if you are:
- A wellness enthusiast and are looking to make changes that will impact your life for the better
- A blogger or wellness influencer and you are looking for new content and to expand your network
- Recently starting a wellness brand and you are looking to launch your business
- Have an established wellness brand and want to meet new customers and network with other experts to grow and expand your business
Why Attend?
Our speakers are nationally recognized wellness experts. Whether you are trying to eat healthier, get fit, sleep better, gain focus and clarity, detoxify your home or beauty routine or all of the above, you can learn actionable steps to living a healthier life.
Whether you are just starting off or you are looking to grow and take your business to the next level, WELL Summit is the place to get it done. From business focused sessions helping you to grow your brand, to opportunities to collaborate with like-minded individuals, WELL Summit can help you to reach your professional goals.
See the WELL Summit Experience
Speakers
Agapi Stassinopoulos
Best-selling Author and Speaker
AGAPI STASSINOPOULOS is a best-selling author and speaker who inspires audiences around the world. In her previous book, Unbinding the Heart: A Dose of Greek Wisdom, Generosity, and Unconditional Love, she shares the wisdom from her life’s adventures and experiences. In her new book, Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life, she takes readers on a journey and inspires them to let go of what doesn’t work and instead create the lives they really want. Agapi was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and then moved on to receive her master’s degree in psychology from the University of Santa Monica. Her previous books on the Greek archetypes, Gods and Goddesses in Love and Conversations with the Goddesses, were turned into PBS specials. She is currently conducting workshops for Thrive Global, a company founded by her sister, Arianna Huffington, to help change the way we work and live. Agapi has spoken and conducted meditations at many corporations including PepsiCo, Google, Nike and Starbucks. She divides her time between New York and Los Angeles and was born and raised in Athens, Greece.
FIND HER online at www.WakeUptotheJoyofYou.com
Agatha Achindu
Founder of Yummy Spoonfuls
Agatha Achindu is the founder of Yummy Spoonfuls Organic Baby & Tots Food. A farm girl at heart, she was raised on her parents’ organic farm in Cameroon, West Africa. Her passion for sharing this deep knowledge of healthy food inspired her to leave a corporate IT career to change the way Americans feed their babies. Change agent and innovator, Agatha shook the grocery industry with a new approach to convenience food. Now she engages audiences worldwide as a panelist, keynote speaker, media personality, and writer. She regularly contributes to the Washington Post, and lectures graduate-level business classes at leading universities. Agatha encourages people to create a better world by living their dreams and realizing their full potential.
Asha Ramakrishna
Spiritual and Business Mentor
Chelsea Williams
Creative Wellness Entrepreneur + Lifestyle Media Correspondent
Chinae Alexander
Entrepreneur, Lifestyle Personality, Writer, Speaker, and Wellness Expert
In addition to talking about her deep inner dislike of kale publicly in front of thousands on the internet, Chinae owns a successful event planning company, has a new YouTube channel, is in the first stages of her first book, and is creating your soon-to-be favorite podcast. When she’s not trying to change the world, you'll find Chinae pondering if a runner’s high is actually a “thing”, while enjoying a glass of malbec and a nice salad*.
*pizza and/or tacos
Elisa Camahort Page
Entrepreneur, Speaker and Advisor
Known as the co-founder and COO of scrappy start-up-turned-global women's media company BlogHer, Inc., Elisa is consulting, advising, speaking out, and writing. Her debut book, Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All, being published by Ten Speed Press this September. Elisa is also consulting with entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and organizations that are driven to take their big ideas to the next level and need a boost envisioning, communicating, and finally executing those big ideas.
Elizabeth Zulick, PhD
Professor & Researcher
Elizabeth Zulick is an Assistant Teaching Professor and lead faculty for the Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and Biotechnology Programs. Dr. Zulick also oversees the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical program. She is responsible for curriculum design, review, and implementation, including learning outcome development, program-wide assessment, and development of new, industry-aligned courses. In addition, she leads local community college outreach and program alignment and cultivates relationships with local biotechnology companies to create learning opportunities for students.
Previously, Dr. Zulick received an Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellowship award to study the effects of environmental exposures on breast cancer. She has published in a number of journals including, BMC Biology, Molecular Cancer Research, and Molecular Neurodegeneration, and has regularly presented at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting.
Previously, Dr. Zulick was a post-doctoral fellow in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University and taught at Boston University's Metropolitan College and College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the University of Massachusetts.
Emily Kanter
Cambridge Naturals
Emily has a background in sustainable food systems, entrepreneurship, community engagement, marketing and design, and brings that expertise to her role at Cambridge Naturals. Before returning to Cambridge Naturals, she lived in Portland, OR with her husband Caleb for four years, where she directed a hunger relief non-profit and received her MBA from Pinchot University (now Presidio). She also worked within local food systems finance at Beneficial State Bank and Community Sourced Capital, as well as helping Caleb to launch his organizational design firm, Owl Fox & Dean. Prior to that, Emily was the Programs Director at SBN Mass, where she helped found the Boston Local Food Festival. Emily has lived abroad in Argentina and Taiwan, teaching English to children and adults. In both countries she explored local food cultures and witnessed first-hand the detrimental impact of western globalization on indigenous diets. Emily has a deep understanding of the natural products industry – her parents are Michael and Elizabeth, the founders of Cambridge Naturals. Her earliest memory is of being plopped into a milk crate in the middle of the bustling grocery store, and watching daily business unfold.. When not at the store (which is rare), Emily is probably listening to a podcast, reading a great book, or cooking delicious meals with Caleb.
Holly Finigan
Writer and Social Media Strategist
Holly Finigan excels at connecting people and brands with the best that Nantucket has to offer. Over the past six years, her lifestyle guide, Nantucket blACKbook, has reinvented the ways for businesses to market and brand on the island. Holly runs the entirety of her platforms around advocacy, not advertising.
Holly is incredibly well connected and has a serious love for hospitality. She spent nine years tending bar on the island at various hotspots like LoLa 41, Dune and Ventuno. As a social media strategist, Holly teaches small classes as well as personal sessions on building brands genuinely by using Facebook and Instagram more effectively.
From producing and hosting events to travel scouting in luxury resort destinations to creating entrepreneur retreats on island and off, Holly has a true passion for curating quality content and connections in fresh and exciting ways. She launched her own retail experience "Happy Place" on Nantucket in 2017 and is currently working on her first book.
Jennifer Hanway
Holistic Nutritionist & Certified Personal Trainer
Jenny D. Brice, MFT, MPH
Psychotherapist & Reiki Practitioner
Jenny D. Brice believes in the power of the personal narrative to radically re-shape one’s life, relationships and experiences. In staying true to her calling, she is on a mission to elevate and encourage the practice of self-love through awareness, acceptance, compassion and appreciation; with the knowledge that people are genuinely doing the best they can with the mindsets and resources they have.
Jenny is a clinically trained Psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of Couples and Families, a Level II Usui Reiki Practitioner, a thirteen-year Public Health veteran and wellness enthusiast. She aims to support others in vibrating higher in all aspects of their human experience by helping them improve the quality of the tools within their internal and external reach. From the concrete and analytical to the experiential and spiritual, Jenny utilizes an integrative approach to help heal, elevate and hold space for individuals, families, couples and partners.
Born in Haiti, Jenny spent the first seven years of her life on the “Great Already” island before immigrating to New York. She is proud to call Philadelphia, PA home for the past eighteen years, where she practices as a Family Therapist at a community based mental health organization serving a culturally rich and diverse population of clients. In 2018 she founded CENTERED Holistic Wellness & Psychotherapy, a private practice where she provides Reiki Healing sessions, as well as traditional talk therapy utilizing evidence-based psychodynamic and systemic approaches.
Jessica Sutton Maniatis
Creative Consultant & Founder of JSGD
Julie Starr
Nutritionist and Founder of Starr Yoga
Ksenia Avdulova
Founder of Breakfast Criminals
By day, Ksenia is freelance Social Media Director at Visual Therapy and digital strategy consultant helping lifestyle brands and changemakers create extraordinary and authentic online presence. Get her social media tips on the upcoming website, digitaloralive.com.
Ksenia is a certified Strala yoga guide and a graduate of David Wagner‘s advanced meditation training. When she’s not taking the latest fitness class in New York or throwing a superfood smoothie bowl party, you can find her flying to Wanderlust Festival in California to write about it for lululemon, meditating at a Tibetan monastery in Swiss Alps, and planning the next yoga & superfoods retreat.
Kristina Tsipouras
Founder & CEO
Moroccan Magic
Marilee Nelson
Environmental Consultant, Building Materials Specialist, co-founder of Branch Basics
Marilee Nelson is on a mission to inspire, motivate, and empower people with information that will enable them to take proactive charge of their health and experience the transforming power of eating real food and creating a truly healthy home. Her personal experience and professional research ties the exponential rise in degenerative disease to exposure to environmental stressors – harmful chemicals in our food, air, water, and products, as well as the increase in exposure to electromagnetic fields. Marilee has spent nearly thirty years as a dietary and environmental consultant for clients across the country who are chemically sensitive, chronically ill, or just plain smart!
Marilee's passion for eating real food was born in her twenties when she experienced the power of using only Food as Medicine to avoid dialysis and a kidney transplant. Years later when her son, Douglas, was catastrophically chemically injured with no medical hope of recovery, she refused to accept that diagnosis. Instead she devoted herself to not only using her dietary knowledge, but also learning and implementing everything she could to create a completely toxin-free home in which he could heal. This proved to be most challenging, eye-opening and life-changing for Marilee as she watched her son react to even the most minute exposure to toxins put in, on and around his body. Yet, as she discovered and removed immune stressors, he literally healed before their eyes. Douglas's symptoms, which closely mirrored an extreme Autism Spectrum Disorder, slowly reversed, he fully recovered and was the first homeschooled child to be accepted into the U.S. Naval Academy.
Marilee is the founder of The House Doctors, her consulting firm, and a co-founder of Branch Basics. She is a medicinal cook, a Board Certified Nutritionist, Certified Bau-Biologist (building biologist), Certified Bau-Biology Inspector, and building materials specialist for healthy homes. She is also on the Advisory Board of Documenting Hope. Marilee is passionate about helping others empower themselves to eat real food and create healthy homes, and thus experience what Branch Basics calls the transforming "Power of Pure".
Mia Davis
Director of Mission
at Credo Beauty
Mia Davis is a leader in the movement shifting the market away from toxic chemicals and unsustainable materials toward healither solutions. Mia has led brands to develop new industry-leading standards, and encouraged consumers to demand transparency and social responsibility from companies, which results in better, cleaner consumer packaged goods.
Rachele Pojednic, PhD EdM
Assistant Professor of Nutrition at Simmons College
Mia Davis is a leader in the movement shifting the market away from toxic chemicals and unsustainable materials toward healither solutions. Mia has led brands to develop new industry-leading standards, and encouraged consumers to demand transparency and social responsibility from companies, which results in better, cleaner consumer packaged goods.
Rebecca Casciano
Makeup Artist & Natural Beauty Expert
Throughout Rebecca's makeup career, she has been on a personal wellness journey that has deeply influenced her approach to beauty. After struggling with cystic acne for several years, she transformed her skin and lifestyle through a plant-based diet and holistic healing modalities. Rebecca’s experience inspired her to become a certified wellness coach and help women embrace their natural beauty from the inside out. In 2015 she founded Sacred Beauty Salon Series, a global movement dedicated to empowering women through beauty and sisterhood.
Learn more about Rebecca’s offerings and programs at www.rebeccacasciano.com.
Sara Auster
Sound Therapist &
Meditation Teacher
Sara Auster is changing the way the world is engaging with sound and the act of listening. As a sound therapist, meditation teacher, and artist, she has been a driving force in bringing sound baths to contemporary culture. Using a holistic approach to well-being with the transformative power of music and sound, her carefully crafted experiences allow sound to be used as a tool to access meditative states, support self-inquiry, and cultivate deep relaxation.
At the age of twenty-three, Sara was working full-time as an artist and musician in her New York City studio when the floor collapsed leaving her back broken in 4 places and temporarily paralyzed. Her physicians at the time told Sara she would live a life of chronic pain, limited mobility, and prescription drugs. This diagnosis led Sara to embark on a journey of recovery from physical and emotional trauma. By way of this healing process, she created a uniquely approachable method based on a lifetime of experience in music and art and over a decade of study in psychoacoustics, yoga and meditation.
In 2014 Sara co-created the Mindful Music + Sound Series at Tibet House, and began to serve on their associate board. This experience inspired Sara to expand her sound offerings to more cultural institutions and public spaces eventually leading to a partnership with the mass meditation event, The Big Quiet and meditation studio, MNDFL. During her two years as Sound Director for both, Sara curated and facilitated unique, site specific sound bath experiences for thousands of people in iconic venues such as: The Museum of Modern Art, Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, One world Observatory, The Rubin Museum and SummerStage in Central Park.
Sara’s work in making meditation and sound baths accessible to all, has gained her recognition as a leading voice in the wellness movement. She has been invited to speak about mindfulness and sound for companies such as Google, Microsoft and American Express. Her work has been featured in several global media outlets including: The New York Times, Time Magazine, Vice, Quartz and Billboard Magazine and was named a top meditation by Oprah Magazine in 2016.
Through sound baths, sound meditation, community events, education and corporate mindfulness training, Sara facilitates mindful and immersive experiences that allow participants access to improved focus, expansive creativity, and deep human connection through listening.
Sara DiVello
Yoga Teacher & Author ofWhere in the OM Am I?
Sara teaches and speaks nationally on using yoga tools to find life balance, direction, and fulfillment. She has appeared on CBS and the Huffington Post Live, as well as in Forbes, The New York Times, ABC, CNBC, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Herald, USA Today, Boston Magazine and many more. Her articles have appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Dr. Oz The Good Life Magazine, MindBodyGreen, and more.
Sara’s classes are welcoming, nourishing, and transformational—offering students of all levels the possibility to step back, breathe deeply, and profoundly experience wellness, balance, and calm. Sara was also selected as one of seven Athleta Brand Ambassadors in the country, and provides free health and wellness events to the Boston community.
Siraad Dirshe
Beauty Editor at Essence Magazine
Tara Foley
Founder of Follain
Back in 2009, Tara was on a completely different career path, working long hours, and trying to stay healthy. It occurred to her that she focused on fitness and healthy eating - but not what she put on her face and body. So she started asking questions and launched a blog focused on finding clean options. The response showed her how many of us wanted to understand what we’re putting on ourselves and where to find effective, luxurious, nontoxic options. When the concept won a national retail business plan competition during her MBA program at Babson, she knew she was onto something! After years of hands-in-the-dirt learning both on a lavender farm in France and with a private label beauty company, she founded Follain in 2013 because she believed and still do that no one should have to sacrifice health for beauty. With degrees in public policy and business, Tara's vision, passion, and activism fuel Follain’s growth, and its mission of improving the health and lives of others.
Tara Foley launched Follain in July 2013, as the healthy beauty retail alternative, and a catalyst for cleaning up the U.S. beauty industry. Before Follain, Tara researched safe and sustainable skincare, apprenticing on an organic lavender farm in France, and with a private label skin care company in Maine. With degrees in public policy and business, Tara's vision, passion, and activism fuel Follain’s growth, and its mission of improving the health and lives of others.
10:00 am - 10:45 am
Everyday Products, Their Ingredients and Our Health
The average woman applies 12 products on a daily basis which include around hundred different ingredients in them. Between the products we put on our bodies and the products we use to clean our homes, we are surrounded by a variety of chemicals and ingredients. Join this panel as industry leaders discuss some of those ingredients and how they are affecting our health.
Panelists: Elizabeth Zulick, Marilee Nelson, Mia Davis, Tara Foley
11:15am to 12:00pm
Eat Well: Demystifying Trends in Healthy Eating
In this session, our group of experts will cover all of the latest healthy diet trends and separate the fact from the fiction. We will cover Keto, gluten-free, FODMAPS, AIP, clean eating, paleo, Whole30 and more. So many of the diet trends seem to contradict each other—we will dig deep and answer all of your questions around healthy and sustainable eating habits.
Panelists: Allison Knott, Jennifer Hanway, Julie Starr
Turning It OFF When You're Always ON: How to Disconnect to Reconnect with Your True Self
A group of tech-savvy entrepreneurs will give tips, tricks, and tools to help you examine your current habits around technology. Learn from real-life examples and stories around the ways in which we are are abusing phones, as well as the best ways to create more space from the digital world and reconnect with your true self.
Panelists: Chelsea Williams, Chinae Alexander, Holly Finigan
12:10pm to 1:00 pm
Agapi Stassinopoulos
Wake up to Joy of You - Guided Meditation - Connect with your Joy. What brings you Joy. What brings you Aliveness.
2:15 am to 3:00pm
Creating Success on Your Terms
We all a preconceived idea of success and what that should look like. But success means different things to different people. Not everyone wants the same things. On this panel, we will discuss success from all areas, outer perception vs inner reality, what to do when it looks good but doesn’t feel good, how to succeed and thrive after you’ve stumbled or fallen, and other unspoken aspects of the climb (or sometimes zig-zag journey) to the top.
Panelists: Gianne Doherty, Jessica Edelstein, Jessica Sutton Maniatis, Kristina Tsipouras
Sacred Beauty
Rebecca Casciano is a professional makeup artist and natural beauty expert on a mission to help women love themselves more deeply through self-care, sisterhood and empowerment. Based on her popular Sacred Beauty Salon Series, this workshop explores the deep connection between our inner and outer beauty. Nourishing this relationship is an act of self-care that can transform how we look and how we feel, mind body and spirit.
Rebecca Casciano
3:10pm - 3:50pm
Where in the OM Am I Women's Circle
Join bestselling author Sara DiVello for this very special Women's Circle combining her nationally taught Where in the OM Am I Workshop (which WELL Summit veteran attendees may have taken) and her new Chakra and Meditation Women's Circle. Attendees will gather in open-hearted community, beginning with a guided meditation to ground them, reflect on where in the OM they are in their lives, how they're progressing toward their goals, what makes them happy, where they're getting stuck, and then share this with another attendee. Sara will then explain how the chakra system, an ancient eastern energy system, can be used to release blockages and get unstuck fast, which we then practice together. Come with an open heart, an open mind, a willingness to connect and be ready to leave feeling shifts and empowered.
Sara DiVello
Business of Wellness: Monetizing Social Media
Learn from our panel of experts who have monetized social media to either a lucrative side hustle, or main business as well as business owners who utilize social media to increase sales.
Panelists: Chelsea Williams, Chinae Alexander, Ksenia Avdulova
4:20 pm - 5:05 pm
Eat WELL: Drop the labels, healthy food for your mental health
This panel dives deep into your relationship with food and how food can affect your mental health. Our panelists will share their expert opinions on how to have a healthy relationship with food and how to decide what really works for you.
Panelists: Chelsea Williams, Jenny D. Brice, MFT, MPH, Rachele Pojednic, PhD EdM
Unstuck: Eight steps to breaking out of habits that hold you back
We all get stuck from time to time. In this session, Vanessa Gobes will guide you through her eight-step process for getting unstuck. Realize, Release, Reflect, Redirect, Rejoice, Reconcile, Return, Repeat — bring a journal for this interactive session.
Vanessa Gobes
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm
The Business of Wellness: Getting the Funds You Need to Succeed
This panel will dive deep into the world of funding! Learn the pros and cons of bootstrapping, angel investing, and VC funding, bank loans and other ways to fund your growth from our panel of experts.
Agatha Achindu, Elisa Camahort Page, Tara Foley
Redefining Self-Care
Self-care is not selfish, it's survival. Going beneath the surface we talk about making self-care a priority. From managing your energy to setting boundaries and more. Wellness is a personal journey and we discuss how taking care of yourself is vital to your overall wellbeing.
Asha Ramakrishna, Rebecca Casciano, Siraad Dirshe
Location
Innovation and Design Building
17 Drydock Avenue, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02210
Hotel
Element Boston Seaport
391-395 D Street, Boston, MA, 02210
We have partnered with the Element Boston Seaport to get you discounted rooms for the WELL Summit. The hotel is a short 15 minute walk or 5 minute car ride to the event location. Just book your room using the link below.
Schedule
Friday April 20, 2018
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Attendee Pre-party at Athleta Newbury Street
Located at 92 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116
The first 20 guests to arrive will get a treat from us. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/well-summit-attendee-pre-party-at-athleta-newbury-tickets-45353165539
Saturday April 21, 2018
8:00 am: Registration Opens
Check in & get Gift Bags at Registration Desk
Breakfast samples from Juice Press
Live W.E.L.L. Marketplace Open All Day
8:15 am to 9:00 am: Optional Morning Yoga: Calm. Centered. Grounded. Presented by Athleta taught by Sara DiVello
B.Y.O.M. Bring Your Own Yoga Mat
9:10 am: W.E.L.L. Summit Boston Kickoff
9:15 am to 9:45 am: Sound Meditation with Sara Auster
10:00 am - 10:45 am: PANEL: Everyday Products, Their Ingredients, and Our Health
10:45 am - 11:15 am: BREAK
11:15am to 12:00pm:
PANEL: Eat Well: Demystifying Trends in Healthy Eating
PANEL: Turning It Off When You're Always On
12:10 am to 1:00pm:
KEYNOTE: Agapi Stassinopoulos- Wake up to Joy of You - Guided Meditation - Connect with your Joy. What brings you Joy. What brings you Aliveness.
1:00 pm - 2:15 pm Lunch provided by Sweet Green
2:15pm - 3:00pm:
PANEL: Creating Success on YOUR Terms
SESSION: Sacred Beauty
3:10pm - 3:50pm:
PANEL: Business of Wellness: Monetizing Social Media
SESSION: Where in the OM Am I Women's Circle
3:50 pm - 4:20pm: BREAK
4:20 pm - 5:05 pm:
PANEL: Eat WELL: Drop the labels, healthy food for your mental health
SESSION: Unstuck: Eight steps to breaking out of habits that hold you back
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm:
PANEL: Redefining Self-Care
PANEL: Business of Wellness: Female Founders discuss Funding and Growing Your Wellness Business
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm: Networking Party
Tickets
All Day Saturday + Pre-Party
- Pre-party on Friday Night
- 7 Hours of Thought-Provoking Keynotes, Panels & Breakout Sessions
- Gift bag filled with wellness goodies
- Tea, Coffee and Healthy Snacks Throughout the Day
- Delicious and Healthy Lunch
- LIVE WELL Marketplace with 30 Vendors, Healthy Snacks, Healthy Cocktails & More
All Day Saturday + Pre-Party
- Pre-party on Friday Night
- 7 Hours of Thought-Provoking Panels & Keynote Speakers
- Exclusive VIP Gift bag Filled with Wellness Goodies
- Tea, Coffee and Healthy Snacks Throughout the Day
- VIP Mentor Session Lunch
- LIVE WELL Marketplace with 30 Vendors, Healthy Snacks, Healthy Cocktails & more
- First Access to Register for Sessions
- Only 75 Tickets Available
Event Services Provided by
Sponsors and Exhibitors
