Keeping it real in an age of curated perfection

Jessica Madruga is a research professional specialising in insights around teens and young adults. As the research manager of MTV, Comedy Central and Spike in ANZ, understanding the mindset of millennials, particularly around their media habits is at the core of what she does.

With 8 years’ experience in the media and research industries, Jessica is a member of the Australian Market & Social Research Society and has previously spoken as a guest lecturer at Sydney University.

Jessica will be speaking on the panel at PRIA's "Keeping it Real in the Age of Curated Perfection" event.

Jono Nicholas was a founding member of ReachOut when it launched in 1998 as the first digital mental health service in the world and has gone on to become one of the most passionate advocates for the mental health of young people. Jono spent the early part of his career developing and leading the ReachOut service before establishing ReachOut in Ireland in 2009.

Since his appointment as CEO of ReachOut Australia in 2010, ReachOut has gone on to become the digital entry point to the mental health system for young people and their parents and is now accessed by over 1.58 million Australians per year for everything from exam stress, relationship difficulties to suicidal thoughts. By 2020, ReachOut plans to help a further one million people per year.

Jono holds an honours degree in psychology and a master's degree in public health and is a father of three young boys.

Jono is a director of Mental Health Australia and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education. He is co-chair of the Telstra Technology and Wellbeing roundtable, member of the Federal Department of Health’s Digital Mental Health Advisory Committee, and the NSW Mental Health Commission’s Suicide Prevention Advisory Group.

Jono will be speaking on the panel for PRIA's "Keeping it Real in the Age of Curated Perfection" event.

Lisa Portolan is a communications and marketing professional who has worked on many large-scale advertising campaigns and industry rebrands. Her novel, Happy As, is due out on the 1st June.
Happy As examines how the concept of happiness is constructed. Starting off with the Greeks and Aristotle, who first generated the notion, to today's shiny #happy presence on social media. What is it exactly, and do we have any chance of actually experiencing real fulfilment within our lifetime?

She has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism)/Bachelor of International Studies and Masters of International Studies from the University of Technology Sydney. She has also studied at the Universita degli studii, Bologna (where she developed a dissertation).

She is a qualified yoga and meditation instructor, and her interest in happiness began as a result of a personal quest for purpose. She embarked on a doctorate on the link between happiness and its construction in 2015, and from there became interested in the links between happiness and identity. Since then she has progressed her doctorate's focus to the study of socio-cultural paradigms, including happiness, love and success — examining the construction of these through communications, religions, dominant narratives and culture.

She is also a freelance journalist whose articles have been widely published in magazines and blogs, including Huffington Post, Mamamia, Elephant Journal, Yoganonymous, Rebelle Society and HerCanberra. Her novel, Happy As, is due out on the 1st June. Her first script, Pretty Girls, is in production. She lives in Sydney with her husband and daughter.

Lisa will be speaking on the panel at PRIA's "Keeping it Real in the Age of Curated Perfection" event.

Clare McMeniman is a former Australian Diamond and Queensland Firebirds netballer and Suncorp #TeamGirls ambassador. After debuting for the Queensland Firebirds in 2007, she became vice-captain of the Firebird's inaugural ANZ Championship team and was involved in the team’s three ANZ Championship Premiership victories. In 2014, following a two-year hiatus from netball, Clare returned to the elite level and debuted as the 163rd Australian netball player and was appointed as the Diamonds captain in 2016. Away from the court, Clare completed a graduate entry master's degree in speech pathology at the University of Queensland and worked periodically during her sporting career.

Since retiring in 2016, she has remained actively engaged in the Australian netball community as a Suncorp #TeamGirls ambassador and is a passionate advocate for investing in the self development and growth of our next generation of netballers, both on and off the court. Clare and former team mate Laura Geitz, continue to educate, enlighten and inspire girls and their parents about the integral role that sports participation plays in building healthy, confident and well supported young women through their program Fuel2Fly presented by Suncorp.

Claire will be speaking on the panel for PRIA's "Keeping it Real in the Age of Curated Perfection" event.

Kate Russell had always known her place was in PR, but after six years in the corporate sector she decided to chase her love for fitness and health, which is what brought her to lululemon athletica and landing her dream job as Regional Community Manager for lululemon in Australia/New Zealand.

At lululemon, Kate drives grass roots marketing through community. She manages and creates collaborations, partnerships and creates experiences. She supports the stores in her region to elevate communities with authentic relationships and inspired leadership.

Prior to coming to lululemon, Kate spent over 5 years at n2n communications where she led strategy and execution of public relations, marketing and events campaigns across Telco, IT, Government, Business and Consumer.

Kate will be speaking on the panel at PRIA's "Keeping it Real in the Age of Curated Perfection" event.