Mari Ryan, MBA, MHP
Certified Worksite Wellness Program Consultant
Chief Executive Officer/Founder

Mari has a passion for activity and healthy living, and is leveraging years as a business professional in managing and overseeing the delivery of the worksite wellness services of AdvancingWellness. She has held various marketing and executive roles over the past 20 years, including Vice President of Marketing for GEN3 Partners and Regional Sales and Marketing Director for ENTEX Information Services (now Siemens Business Services). Mari has also managed a successful business as an independent management consultant.

Mari holds a Bachelor Degree from Lesley University, an MBA from Boston University, and a Masters in Health Promotion from Nebraska Methodist College. She is a certified Worksite Wellness Program Consultant and is a certified facilitator in a number of evidence-based behavior change programs.

Mari’s articles on worksite health promotion topics have been published in the American Journal of Health Promotion and Occupational Health and Safety Magazine. Mari is in demand as a speaker at local and national conferences on health promotion topics.

Mari is a member of the Board of Directors of Health Promotion Advocates, a group of committed health promotion professionals who are working to integrate health promotion concepts into national health policy. She is also the founder of Health Promotion Entrepreneur's Network. Mari currently serves as the co-chair of the SBANE Human Resources Committee and is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Worksite Wellness Council of Massachusetts.

Mari’s love for walking has brought her to lead a community-based walking program in Watertown , Massachusetts , called Watertown Walks! Mari also serves as a member of the Bicycle/Pedestrian committee for the Town of Watertown and initiated a Safe Routes to School program to encourage children to walk or bike to school. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Boston Harbor Islands Alliance, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase awareness and use of the Boston Harbor Islands national park area, and assists the owners with island management. In 2006, Mari accomplished a personal goal of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Valorie Bender, CWPM

Wellness Account Manager

Valorie is responsible for the management and implementation of individual client wellness programs. She has a depth of business experience in field and corporate operations, project management, training and development and special events.  Valorie’s business experience includes running a regional non-profit organization, retail management and working for BP Oil, a large multinational corporation where she developed and delivered training programs throughout the U.S. for thousands of employees. She is now combining her skills in communication, training and project management with her passion for wellness.

Valorie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Bowling Green State University. She is a Certified Wellness Program Manager through the National Wellness Institute and is certified in the following evidence-based healthy lifestyle programs: Active Living Every Day and Healthy Eating Everyday through Human Kinetics. She is also certified as a Holistic Stress Management Instructor.

Valorie is active in the Northeast Ohio Wellness Council, a not-for-profit corporation chartered to promote the concept of wellness at the worksite.  She is a member of the Coaching Federation, American Society for Training and Development, and Your Holistic Health Team, a resource center for healthy living.

Valorie’s personal wellness program includes yoga, weights and hiking. She recently began a ‘netwalking’ program for professionals to walk and get fit as they network.  She also enjoys teaching classes on developing ones creativity based on the book “The Artist’s Way”.

Novelette DeMercado, MS

Health Coach/Wellness Coordinator

With more than 15 years in the health and wellness field, Novelette has worked as a health educator and health coach in a variety of settings. Novelette was a group exercise instructor and subsequently the owner of a Jazzercise franchise. She has worked as health educator/health coach at a national health insurance company and an adjunct faculty teaching health and fitness, health promotion and consumer health at Fitchburg State University.

Novelette holds a Bachelor Degree from Pace University, a Masters in Professional Communication from Clark University, and a Masters in Exercise Science/Health Promotion from Springfield College. She has completed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Training Program at the University of Massachusetts and is a Wellcoaches certified Health Coach and Wellness Coach.

Novelette believes that one of the best ways to adopt and sustain healthy lifestyle habits is to become aware of one’s current behaviors. It is this awareness that will help to bring about lastly changes. She enjoys being the catalyst for the changes individuals employ to ensure a healthy and productive life.

Novelette is an active member at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center. She practices mindfulness of her activities and being present throughout her day, and brings this attention to her coaching and health education practices.

Melissa Naborowsky, RN

Health Coach/Wellness Coordinator

Melissa is a person that feels best when helping others.  Over the past 20 years, she has dedicated her energy to doing just that.  She earned her Associates of Nursing Degree at York Technical College in Rock Hill, SC and worked in the fitness industry for almost ten years prior to becoming a registered nurse.  It is because she has seen the manifestation of chronic illness and poor habits that she has a passion to inspire others to take better care of them selves. 

Melissa brings a unique and very valuable set of knowledge to the team at AdvancingWellness because she has seen how difficult it is to live with disease.  She feels disease is preventable the majority of the time and prides herself on the opportunity to see others live happy, healthy, productive lives.  She believes everyone is entitled to being and feeling well. Her many years of Emergency Nursing will be a great attribute to helping others recognize the red flags before it is too late.  Melissa also feels very led toward wellness as a result of her work as a Hospice Nurse.  It was through the lives of her patients and their stories that she made it her personal goal to someday get away from the “illness” industry and enter into the era of  “wellness”. It is here that she has made it her personal goal to inspire change for the better in as many lives as possible.

Prior to being a nurse, Melissa worked in Health and Fitness.  She assisted clients in developing proper exercise and nutrition programs for over nine years.  She was a certified Nutritionalysis Technician for Gold’s Gym, as well as a fitness and exercise instructor for Gold’s Gym, World Gym and Fitness Today.   In addition, Melissa trained for a fitness competition and took third place only ten months after the birth of her first child.

Melissa also holds a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism from the University of Maine and hopes to someday get published. Her wish is to write something of deep meaning that will lead others toward living the best life possible.

Vicki Prussak, CWPM, ACE

Wellness Coordinator

Vicki believes small incremental changes provide large healthy gains.  A life-long health and wellness enthusiast, Vicki meets people where they are. As a health coach Vicki assists clients to find their own desire and motivation for personal lifestyle changes. Through listening, asking questions, and reflecting back to the client, Vicki helps them close the gap between desire and reality.

A successful visual marketing professional for over 20 years, Vicki gained much knowledge and understanding of the strong connection needed between mind and body health and career competence and achievement. Vicki is a Certified Wellness Coach through Wellcoaches, Corporation, an affiliate of the American College of Sports Medicine. She earned her B.A. in Marketing Management with a specialty in Ecommerce at Malone College and a B.A. in Health Services Management. Additionally, Vicki is an ACE-certified Personal Trainer and a Certified Workplace Wellness Program Manager.

Heidi Duskey, MA, CPCC
Co-Founder, AdvancingWellness

Heidi manages a clinical wellness coaching practice at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, maintains a private coaching practice, and presents regularly at industry conferences as a behavior change specialist. She is also a faculty member for Wellcoaches, the premier wellness coaches training organization in the US.  For 15 years, Heidi has worked in the health and fitness industry, holding positions as diverse as Smoking Cessation Facilitator for the American Lung Association, Health Educator for the Boston Regional Medical Center, Fitness Director at Healthworks Fitness Centers, and Director of Programs at the Mount Auburn Club.

Karen Handmaker, MPP

Karen is a health and productivity expert serving health management vendors, employers and health care providers. She has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry, focusing for the past 11 years on health management and productivity enhancement strategies for employers. She has held senior roles at national firms including Towers Watson (formerly Watson Wyatt), Alere (Matria/CorSolutions), SHPS, Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche. Karen is a member of the editorial board for Population Health Management.  Karen earned a BA in American Studies from Trinity College (Hartford CT) and a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (Cambridge, MA).