About Melina

For more than forty years, I made a career out of asking other people questions.

As a journalist, I interviewed everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Nora Ephron to Deepak Chopra, always fascinated by what makes a life meaningful. Later, at National Geographic, I helped build one of the world’s most beloved children’s brands, creating books, magazines, television, radio, and digital experiences that reached millions of families around the globe.

On paper, my career looked exactly as I’d hoped it would.

Then, in my late fifties, life changed all at once. My children left for college. My father died. I sold the family home, left a long career behind, and found myself asking the same questions I’d spent decades asking everyone else: What now?

That question became a year-long investigation into reinvention. It led me to coaching, to writing Apothecary, and to discovering that paying attention can change the direction of a life.

Today I divide my time between writing, coaching, speaking, and continuing my own experiments in living more thoughtfully. I’m still asking questions. Now I simply ask them alongside the people I work with.