Craig Thomas is the co-creator of the Emmy-winning comedy series How I Met Your Mother. His prose has appeared in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, McSweeney's, and The Iowa Review. He is an Emmy-nominated songwriter who has written songs for Sesame Street, and is a founding member, drummer, and songwriter for The Solids. He and HIMYM star Josh Radnor recently launched rewatch podcast, How We Made Your Mother. He lives in New York City with his wife, Rebecca, his daughter, Celia, and his son, Elliot, whose unique journey has had a huge impact on his life and work. THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED is his first novel.
Lina Polimeni has spent 22 years at Eli Lilly and Company doing one thing: making Health impossible to ignore.
As Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer - Consumer, she leads corporate brand marketing, media, sponsorships, all product advertising and entertainment partnerships - including Lilly's Olympic and Paralympic sponsorships and one of the most ambitious cultural marketing programs in the pharmaceutical industry.
The scope of the role is broad. What drives it is singular. She changes the rooms Health is allowed to be in.
Under her leadership, Lilly stopped being a healthcare advertiser and became a cultural contributor - showing up at the Oscars, the Olympics, Sundance, the Grammys, and primetime ESPN not as a sponsor, but as a storyteller.
She commissioned a landmark study with USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative on how disease is portrayed in popular media - and then took the findings somewhere meaningful. As an executive producer, she translated that research into real films, real partnerships, and real cultural moments - work designed to change how disease is represented in the stories that shape how millions of people understand health. From emerging filmmaker programs to primetime ESPN specials to National Geographic documentaries, the work lives where culture actually happens.
Her belief is simple and radical at the same time: Health shouldn't only be discussed in moments of sickness. It belongs in every cultural conversation - in the stories people watch, the athletes they follow, the moments that shape how they think about their bodies, their families, and their lives.
That conviction has made her one of the most recognized voices in marketing - Ad Age Woman to Watch, MM+M Woman to Watch, Adweek Women Trailblazers, Fast Company Brand that Matters, Fierce Pharma's Fiercest Women in Life Sciences and many more. She serves on the MMA Board, the ANA Media Committee, the Adweek Diversity and Inclusion Council, and the ColorComm Board.
Outside of Lilly, she is deeply passionate about raising the next generation of marketing leaders - paying forward the opportunities and sponsorship that shaped her own career. The door doesn't close behind her. It never has.
She came to the United States from Italy with a university degree, a student visa, and a point to prove. What has followed has surprised even her.
Monica Lewinsky is an activist, writer, producer, global public speaker, and contributing editor to Vanity Fair. She is also the host of the podcast Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, which launched in February 2025, and explores personal narratives of identity, survival, and transformation. The podcast was named one of Rolling Stone's "Top 10 New Podcasts of 2025" and included in The Guardian's "20 Best Podcasts of 2025."
A leading voice on the issues of public shaming, cyberbullying, and resilience, Lewinsky has transformed her own lived experience into influential advocacy work. Through writing, speaking, and storytelling, she fosters compassionate conversations around shame, accountability, and reclaiming one's voice.
Lewinsky served as an executive producer on the Hulu series The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, which premiere in August 2025. After meeting Knox at a conference and reading a New York Times interview in which Knox expressed interest in adapting her memoir, Lewinsky initiated the project-bringing together key creative partners and helping secure writer KJ Steinberg and The Littlefield Company to bring the story to screen. She previously served as a producer on Ryan Murphy's Impeachment: American Crime Story for FX and as an executive producer on the HBO Max documentary 15 Minutes of Shame.
In 2015, after a decade of silence, Lewinsky authored the essay "Shame and Survival" for Vanity Fair, in which she examined the lasting effects of public humiliation and challenged a culture that disproportionately shames and silences the powerless. The essay was nominated for a National Magazine Award.
Her 2015 TED Talk, "The Price of Shame," has been viewed more than 25 million times, and has spoken at major global events including the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, Cannes Lions Festival, The Atlantic Festival, and New York Times Dealbook Summit.
As a social activist, Lewinsky advocates for a safer social media environment and addresses topics such as digital resilience, privacy, and cultivating compassion online. In 2017, for National Bullying Prevention Month, she launched the #ClickWithCompassion campaign and released the Emmy-nominated PSA In Real Life in collaboration with BBDO New York. She and BBDO continued to partner in 2018 and 2019 on additional award-winning campaigns. Her most recent 2023 campaign, Stand Up to Yourself, encourages people to stop "self-bullying."
Lewinsky is a founding board member of the Childhood Resilience Foundation, serves on the advisory board of Project Rockit (Australia's premier anti-bullying organization), and is an Ambassador for The Diana Award's Anti-Bullying Program in the UK. She holds a master's degree in social psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.