For decades, readers have turned to columnists like Dear Abby, Carolyn Hax, and Heloise tips, tricks, and advice.
What’s missing is an advice column that offers insights from a culturally representative point of view for people of color, particularly Hispanic and Latino communities.
Accredited public relations strategist, business owner, author, podcaster, and national Public Relations Society of America industry columnist Melissa Vela-Williamson will help fill this gap to serve the community.
Her free advice column, Ask a Latina, offers helpful, honest and relatable advice to the nation’s largest ethnic group – Latinos. And for Latinos, it’s typically the Latinas who guide the major life decisions for their families and communities. Combining a professional, researched, and lived experience perspective, Melissa offers sound advice that incorporates the cultural preferences and nuances that influence our lives.
Ask A Latina covers topics that can improve the most important social determinants of thriving like money, career, culture, and building healthy relationships with loved ones.
The column will share what’s on readers’ minds and offer them candid, timeless advice they may not get elsewhere. From a first-gen-just-about-everything and professional adviser point of view, Ask A Latina fills the gap of what’s missing in most personal and professional guidance.
Melissa Vela-Williamson, M.A., APR, Fellow PRSA, CDP
Melissa Vela-Williamson is an accredited, internationally recognized public relations strategist, national industry columnist, podcast host, and book author. With over two decades of multicultural and integrated marketing communications experience, Melissa serves as a strategic planner, adviser, trainer, and account director at her boutique PR firm, MVW Communications. She has provided strategic counsel and professional guidance to over 100 brands, educating, equipping, and encouraging audiences ranging from kids to CEOs. She is also Compassionate USA certified, a Certified Diversity Professional (CDP)® and a certified coach.
Her professional and lived experience influence her professional point of view. She’s known for tackling tough topics, accomplishing big goals, and being a trustworthy, smart talk guide for people of all ages. Melissa has lived through adversity and is committed to sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way.
As a first-generation university graduate, first-generation PR practitioner, first-generation business owner, and second-generation U.S.-born Mexican American, she relates to the non-linear, trailblazer journey many people of color experience. She is honored to offer the valuable skills of public relations advising and share them as principles for leading a good life with the community at large.