Melissa Reali-Elliott has spent over 15 years marketing digital technologies and is a self-professed data center nerd. She holds degrees in Marketing, Economics, and Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Over her career, she has supported organizations specializing in software applications, IoT, RFID, industrial automation, and power distribution to utility markets, including smart grid, smart city, and microgrid applications, as well as critical infrastructure industries such as data centers. She currently serves as the Content Marketing Manager for DC BLOX, a provider of tier III data centers throughout the Southeast US, along with connectivity and fiber solutions that further build digital infrastructure. Prior to this, she held senior marketing roles in the data center segment teams for Kohler and ABB. She is a regular contributor to many industry publications and writes the Data-Centered column for Mission Critical Magazine. Her background in marketing and communications has accelerated her work in developing strategic messaging and content, media relations, and public speaking as an expert in her field, as well as to lend her voice as an advocate for diversity and sustainability initiatives. To these efforts, she contributed to the overnight 2022 bestseller "Greener Data," a multi-author, visionary book that features the voices, stories, and perspectives of leading decision-makers in the data center and network infrastructure industry to share timely insights that inspire positive change towards sustainability. Over the course of her career, she has led many employee resource groups, spoken on a variety of Diversity and Inclusion sub-topics, and is a champion for diverse outreach and empowerment, the subject of future works as well as the 2023 bestseller “The Diversity in Humanity.”