Nerissa Knapp possesses over 15 years of leadership in business communications, team development and marketing. She designs and delivers customized programs for organizations to maximize leadership and team effectiveness to foster employee inclusivity and engagement.

Nerissa has experience working in the private and public sectors, including universities and other educational institutions, government municipalities, airports, Ontario Courts, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) and School Boards.

Nerissa has experience designing business and integrated marketing plans, brand management strategies, social media campaigns, product life cycle pricing strategies, digital marketing etc. She has strategically planned and coordinated multimillion-dollar business expansions for various industries, conducted macro-environmental and risk analyses, and translated them into business and financial plans.

As an accredited Mediator and Communications Coach, Nerissa fosters a safe space for clients to be seen, heard, and understood, while sharing challenging stories, especially in volatile situations. She balances the power amongst participants to help to bring out underlying issues in a respectful and emotionally intelligent manner, move participants from positions to interests, to empower them to reach mutually beneficial resolutions.

As a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Assessor and Facilitator, she works with people from all organizational levels, including C-Suite, leadership and management teams, frontline employees etc. She cultivates a DEIA infrastructure to equip organizations with tools to cultivate a more inclusive workplace to create a community of belonging and strengthen access to employment and retention for employees. Nerissa helps organizations to create DEIA action plans by performing workplace climate assessments to identify any DEIA gaps, develop and measure performance metrics, create DEIA curriculum, and deliver DEIA trainings to help prioritize and bridge DEIA gaps.

Nerissa was humbled to be selected as professor/instructor of the year at McMaster University (MCE) in the Business Administration and Marketing programs, where she teaches Business Communications, Leadership and Supervision, and Marketing.

Nerissa incorporates Adult Learning Principles (Andragogical principles) in her material, engages learners via experiential learning and applies concepts to relevant real-life professional experiences. She also incorporates multiple instructional strategies to reach learners with diverse learning styles, using a combination of media and activities. She fosters a safe, positive, interactive, and inclusive learning environment for learners. Nerissa is passionate about facilitating learning and development in adults to empower them to maximize their learning potential to achieve their goals.

Nerissa has also served McMaster University (MCE) and other academic institutions as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on various course development projects that includes developing curriculum, course plans, course learning objectives, module learning objectives, interactive and engaging course content, course evaluations and rubrics.

Nerissa holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA), a BA in Marketing and Psychology, advanced certification and training in Conflict Management and Mediation, DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility), Instructing Adults, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness and Career Development.