Melissa LaRosa

After completing my undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science, I started at an insurance company as a rating analyst. In 2012, I began volunteering nights and weekends with a nonprofit film institute in Reading, Pennsylvania, working on a youth media initiative program to reduce youth violence. I wrote grant proposals, built partnerships with inner-city schools, recruited 50 at-risk youth, and helped develop the program curriculum. The students produced 20 PSAs for partnering nonprofits, which I hosted in an online film festival with $10,000 in prizes. After over a year of volunteering, the institute started receiving RFPs to produce commercials and content for local businesses and independent filmmakers, which I translated into a full-time business development role. A few years later, I went to grad school at Carnegie Mellon for their MEIM program. During quarantine, I trained for marathons, explored my passion for music by reading music business books, and completed Carnegie's Chief Digital Officer program, which helped me develop AI-driven strategy frameworks. This led to an opportunity at Disney working on their Power BI platform, then to Apple Music where I worked on the label side and the launch of their radio stations globally. I just started my current role in January 2025 as Product Manager and Senior Business Analyst at CAA, where I partner with departments across motion picture, television, sports, and brand consulting, becoming a subject matter expert in the business and defining requirements to support different systems and processes.