Marisa Nightingale
Media Strategist for Social Impact
Seasoned media strategist with a talent, passion and track record for harnessing the power of pop culture to drive social change. A collaborative leader, she has forged hundreds of trusted relationships with decision-makers across the media and nonprofit landscape to inform and activate audiences through voices they trust. Both in-house and as a consultant, she has helped bring evidence-based information about reproductive health, early child development, hunger and poverty; and preventing teen drug abuse into pop culture, and helped under-represented voices shape national conversations about these topics.
She knows how to help media leaders incorporate science into storytelling effectively and organically. She has led surveys, impact evaluations and award-winning social campaigns that have garnered milliions of dollars woth of pro bono placements, earned media coverage and high audience engagement. She develops custom discussion guides and collateral material to help audiences use pop culture moments to spark discussions and take action.
She is a published author, dynamic speaker and and expert source who has been interviewed by The Today Show, The View, NPR, USA Today, Glamour, The Washington Post and a range of lifestyle magazine brands. She has led discussions at The Television Academy, The UN Foundation and the International Communications Association; and guest lectured at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School of Communication, University of Delaware and Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business about the value and impact of entertainment-education.
As part of her work as Entertainment Consultant at Power to Decide, she helps advance the organization's mission through creative partnerships with TV, film and digital/social creatives. She served on its founding staff (then the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy in 1996) and is the architect of its nationally-recognized entertainment media effort, which has been credited with helping to drive the nation's historic declines in teen and unplanned pregnancy. As a media advisor to Zero to Three, she helped lead groundbreaking research with Millennial parents and brought new insights to the organization, the field and the media. She helped the Trust for the National Mall bing the White Flags covid memorial to a wider audience, and launch their "Monumental Conversations" virtual series to bring leaders in architecture, art, journalism and history to audiences worldwide.
