LEADERSHIP
Karalynn Sprouse
Karalynn, who joined Emerald in 2013, serves as executive vice president with responsibility for five Emerald sectors including the Gift and Cannabis Group. Karalynn is responsible for increasing market share, building new revenue streams through strategic partnerships and creating a solution-based sales and client success approach. With more than 25 years of experience in the media and event sales and marketing industries, Karalynn has ample experience mentoring and guiding top-tier companies to success.
Melody Brown
Melody leads the development of cohesive strategies across Emerald’s media portfolio. Melody, who joined Emerald in February 2025, has led marketing and editorial departments by optimizing teams and streamlining workflows to drive digital transformation and augment engagement and revenue. She previously worked at Blavity, where she directed consumer editorial and affiliate marketing; Travel + Leisure Co., where she led global content strategy; as well as ABC and NBC TV stations in news executive producer roles.
Emilie Lewis
Emilie is senior vice president of marketing and content strategy. She has more than 20 years of experience spanning brands such as Nike, Adidas and Brookfield as well as iconic events including Coterie, Project and ComplexCon. A seasoned entrepreneur, she founded Room4 Agency and Please & Thank You. Emilie also serves on the board of Ally2Action, is a member of the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles, the Alliance of Moms as well as the International Association of Exhibitions and Events.
Harrison Radie
Harrison is a trade show leader with 20-plus years of experience, currently focused on advancing the cannabis industry. Since joining MJBizCon in 2023, he has helped transform the show by expanding key categories and driving both audience growth and industry impact. Before entering the cannabis space, Harrison specialized in international sales and market strategy for major shows such as ASD, InfoComm and The NAMM Show. His expertise lies in building global partnerships and creating platforms that foster business and innovation.
EDITORIAL
Darcel Duncan
Darcel Duncan is Group Director of Content & Editorial at Emerald, where she leads strategy and execution across MJBizDaily and Pizza Today. Since joining Emerald in June 2025, she has driven cross-functional alignment between the editorial, marketing, and sales teams to enhance audience engagement, elevate brand storytelling, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
Before joining Emerald, Darcel spent seven years at Blavity Inc., overseeing marketing and content strategy across its portfolio of brands. Earlier in her career, she held roles at iHeartRadio and The Paley Center for Media, building a strong foundation in audience growth and media production.
Chris Roberts
Chris has covered cannabis since spending a few months in Humboldt County in 2009, with bylines in The Guardian, VICE, Daily Beast, SF Weekly, Forbes.com, Leafly and many others. He won an investigative reporting award for a Curbed SF series revealing fraud at a radioactive U.S. Navy shipyard in San Francisco. He lives in New York City.
Margaret Jackson
Margaret is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of experience covering everything from real estate and technology to transportation and local governments. She has written for The Denver Post, St. Louis Business Journal and other outlets. Her awards include best reporting from the Colorado Press Association and best business and investigative reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists. Margaret earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.
Andrew Long
Chris Olson
For the past seven years, Chris has produced educational programming for the cannabis and psychedelics industries, most recently for MJBizCon. Previously, he developed conference programming and webinars for the National Cannabis Industry Association, where he helped the Community College of Denver develop a cannabis business associate degree. Additionally, Chris produced programming at Jage Media for cannabis retailers and brands. He also served as a field manager on the campaign to decriminalize psilocybin in Denver.
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