Planet Women Academy
Our Stories Matter: Owning Our Voice, Shaping Our Future
Date: September 15, 2026
Time: 10:00-11:30am Pacific US/1:00-2:30pm Eastern US
Your story is more than a record of what happened to you. It is a source of connection, learning, and courage for someone else. When we share our stories, we give others permission to share theirs. Hearing our individual and collective stories offers inspiration, shared understanding, and sparks community connections. Learning from our collective experience as women and women of color can inform our unique paths to becoming effective storytellers. Join Planet Women for this storytelling session to hear the unique stories of leaders in the sector, author your own stories, and share among a community committed to valuing those stories.
What to Bring: A pen and paper or some way to write down your story!
Meet Your Speakers:
Andrea Denton
Andrea Denton is a sustainability leader at Cox Enterprises, where she serves as Senior Manager of Business Partnerships in Sustainability, focusing on the Cox Automotive division. In this role, she leverages her knowledge of business operations to foster collaboration across the enterprise with innovative solutions that drive operational efficiencies, cost savings, and meaningful progress toward environmental goals. She is passionate about storytelling and turning vision into action, delivering both environmental and operational results.
Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis
Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis is an environmental arts and humanities thought leader, scholar, writer, and transdisciplinary artist. They are a Planet Women 100 Women Pathway alum, now supporting the Pathway as a program consultant and facilitator. As the inaugural Executive Curator of Root to Flourish Collective, Dr. Mel's work ensures systemically marginalized voices are central to shaping the future of environmental stewardship.
Rooted in the Gulf South’s folklore, dialect, foodways, music, and landscapes, Dr. Mel’s creative work explores nature writing themes in rural coastal settings through the lens of Black, Creole, and AfroIndigenous knowledges. Their book Biomythography Bayou is available via The Griot Project Book Series at Bucknell University Press; their writing can be found in academic and creative writing journals and anthologies, including About Place, Artlines, Queer Nature, Women & Language, and Feminist Formations.