Episodes

This week’s guest is Dr. Robb Kelly, a sought-after recovery expert who believes in treating the causes of addiction and not the symptoms. A frequent contributor to radio and print interviews, his professional credentials include a PhD in psychology from Trinity College/Oxford University and a PhD in Psychology with a behavioral science concentration from the University of Southampton. Dr. Kelly hosted the Sober Celebs show on KLIF radio in Dallas and currently hosts the Breaking Through Addicti...

Susan Ann Davis is Chairman of Susan Davis international (SDI). She joins program host Chris Meek to discuss how the global strategic communications consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC provides expertise in reputation management, market entry and expansion, public affairs, crisis and risk communications. Ms. Davis will provide an inside look into her role offering counsel to government and business leaders in 14 countries, including Northern Ireland, Ireland, Panama, Egypt, Sweden, a...

Ashley Davis is a lead principal at West Front Strategies, a multi-million dollar lobbying firm she co-founded in 2015. In that role, she oversees advocacy efforts for the interests of her Fortune 500 clients before the federal government’s legislative and executive branches. This week she joins program host Chris Meek on Next Steps Forward to share her expertise garnered through years working in the executive branch. As Special Assistant to National Director and then Secretary of Homeland Secur...

Dr. Christine Hardy and Dr. Kristen Weishaar of the Flint Animal Care Cancer Center at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado join Next Steps Forward host Chris Meek to discuss their mission to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer in pet animals and how they translate their research and knowledge to benefit people with cancer. Dr. Christine Hardy is the Associate Director, Development Operations and Strategy Lead of the One Cure Program. Dr. Kristen Weishaar is...

Driven by the belief that every individual has a unique voice and an important story to tell, Madeline Fetterly builds partnerships, creates stories, champions women’s leadership and is a sought-after strategic thinker. She joins program host Chris Meek to break down the importance of how and why it is up to each and every one of us to use our voices and stories to strive for ultimate success. As the founder and CEO of Be the Brand, Madeline will take the audience behind the scenes of her work w...

This week on Next Steps Forward, Meaghan Mobbs joins program host Chris Meek. Meaghan is the president of the Romulus T. Weatherman Foundation and vice president for client strategies for LINK Public Affairs. She is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a former paratrooper and a combat veteran. She earned a master’s degree in forensic psychology from George Washington University and holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University where her work focused on the ...

BéBé Rayborn is a senior at Mississippi State University where she is pursuing a double major in Communications with a public relations emphasis and Philosophy with a religion emphasis. But she is not the average college student. Not only is she a model, who has been signed with The Industry NY, The Industry LA and MiLK Model Management since 2021, but is an avid leader and advocate on behalf of victims and survivors of sex and human trafficking. She currently has a volunteer role with the Missi...

As a program that seeks to provide a platform for voices on the frontlines of combating human trafficking, Chris Meek is honored to have Gayle Smith, the founder and leader of Dahlia Grove, join him on this installment of Next Steps Forward. In 2016, Gayle took her passion for helping women victimized by the human trafficking crisis and turned it into action by founding Dahlia Grove out of a massive and ever growing need to serve victims. Acknowledging the extensive pain and suffering experience...

Reagan Cannon is an international leadership speaker and coach, with proven tactics and insights from over 20 years of experience at Fortune 15 companies, including executive leadership positions at Amazon and AT&T. As a true global thought leader, she has delivered keynotes, coached global leaders, delivered a TEDx talk, and conducted development workshops for thousands of people in more than 20 countries - on six continents. She joins Chris Meek on Next Steps Forward to discuss what truly hold...

Meaghan B Murphy is the author of “Your Fully Charged Life: A Radically Simple Approach to Having Endless Energy and Filling Every Day with YAY” (Penguin Random House), an editor, on-air personality, lifestyle and health expert, a home-hack master and certified trainer. She brings her high-energy, upbeat personality to Next Steps Forward to discuss how the audience can take a simple yet effective approach to having endless energy everyday. She will provide an overview of the concepts presented i...

22 years ago the United States of America experienced the worst terrorist attack in American history. The attacks on the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania took the lives of over 3,000 Americans and injured countless more who still live with the effects of both their visible and invisible injuries today. As a 9/11 survivor, program host Chris Meek pays reverence to the men and women in uniform who worked tireless...

Rochelle Keyhan is the Chief Executive Officer of Collective Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit committed to eliminating human trafficking. She joins the Next Steps Forward audience to speak about how she develops and executes the organization’s strategic direction and collaborations focused on disrupting specific types of human trafficking. She was formerly the Director of Disruption Strategies at Polaris, the nonprofit organization that operates the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hot...

Stephanie C. Hill is executive vice president of Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) for Lockheed Martin Corporation, a $16 billion enterprise employing 35,000 people across the globe. She’s also a vocal advocate for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and a role model for mentorship in the workplace. She joins program host Chris Meek on this edition of Next Steps Forward to discuss her deep commitment to mentoring others and what planted that seed of commitment, her continue...

Chris Meek welcomes Tom Sterner to Next Steps Forward. Tom is best known as the founder and CEO of the Practicing Mind Institute. In addition to those roles, he is a successful entrepreneur, an expert in Present Moment Functioning, and an in-demand speaker who works with industry groups and high-performance individuals, including athletes, to help them operate effectively in high-stress situations so that they can achieve new levels of mastery. He has brought clarity to thousands so they can acc...

On this installment of Next Steps Forward, Dr. Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher and Jeff Dill join program host Chris Meek. Dr. Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management in the Department of Decision and Information Sciences in the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, with a joint faculty appointment in the Hobby School of Public Affairs. She is Faculty Director of Bauer Honors, Director of Accreditation in the Hobby School, and Associate Di...

This week's guest on Next Steps Forward is Michael Koslow. Michael Koslow joined the U.S. Air Force at the age of 17, rising through the ranks and working in counterintelligence to safeguard our national security. He retired from military service after 33 years and his path led him to the Department of Defense Inspector General's office. He broadened his perspective as a special investigations regional manager for a leading healthcare industry organization. He holds a B.A. in criminal justice, a...

This week’s guest on Next Steps Forward is Jenn Granneman. Jenn is the founder of Introvert, Dear and the co-founder of Sensitive Refuge. An educator and a journalist, she is the co-author of a fascinating, and even groundbreaking, new book, Sensitive. She’s also the author of The Secret Lives of Introverts. Jenn has been featured in The New York Times and Washington Post, by the BBC, Oprah Daily, Buzzfeed, Glamour, HuffPost, and more, as well as numerous podcasts. She hosts her own podcast call...

Julie Scelfo is the Founder and Executive Director of Get Media Savvy, a nonprofit using pop culture to establish a healthy media environment for kids and families. She joins Next Steps Forward host Chris Meek to discuss the mission, goals and outcomes of her organization, as well as how exactly to create a healthy media environment for children. Julie will provide background about how her experience as an award-winning journalist, which included serving as a staff writer at the New York Times, ...

In her memoir, The Fine Art of Camouflage, Lauren Kay Johnson tells a coming-of-age narrative against a backdrop of war wherein both her mother’s and her own service are explored. Lauren focuses on in-depth questions of war, the military, the role of information in war and in interpersonal relationships and her own family history in the memoir, as well as throughout her appearance on Next Steps Forward. Ultimately, she wrestles with the truth in the stories we read and hear from the media and of...

Next Steps Forward is focused on resiliency, leadership, personal empowerment and wellbeing. There are very few people who personify and epitomize all of those qualities more than this week’s guest, Breanna Cole. She is an outreach advocate at Selah Freedom, a faith-based nonprofit anti-human trafficking organization, based in Florida and the Midwest, with the mission to end sex trafficking and bring freedom to the exploited through five strong programs: Awareness, Prevention, Outreach, Resident...

James Dudley joins this episode of Next Steps Forward. Jim Dudley has extensive experience as a practitioner in law enforcement and criminal justice in San Francisco. A 32-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, he has served in the ranks as a patrol officer, Sergeant, Inspector, Lieutenant, Captain, Commander and Deputy Chief. He served in all bureaus including Airport, Administration, Special Operations, Homeland Security, Investigations and Patrol Operations. He holds a Master of...

The war against sex trafficking and exploitation of children by predators who prey on them for profit or their own gratification may be the most important human rights battle of our time. This week’s conversation on Next Steps Forward is with someone on the front lines of that struggle. Stacey Efaw is the executive director of Selah Freedom. Stacey grew up in a military family. She lived in the Tampa Bay area in the 1980s when her family was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base. She earned her ba...

Burke Bryant is an esteemed author, public speaker, and humanitarian whose life-saving contributions have garnered widespread recognition, including the prestigious Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where he served as an operations specialist, and possesses a diverse skill set that includes combat search and rescue, tactical combat casualty care and diving instruction. In 2016, Bryant founded the Humanitarian Aid and Rescue Project, where he currently ser...

Christy Warren, a retired fire captain from the Berkeley Fire Department in California and host of The Firefighter Deconstructed, walks the audience through a firefighter’s journey through PTSD on this week’s episode of Next Steps Forward. She has twenty-five years of service as a professional paramedic and eighteen years as a professional firefighter/paramedic. After being diagnosed with PTSD in 2014, she retired from the fire service. Since then, she has become a triathlete, completed the Esca...