PYBFF Leadership Team

Put Your Best Foot Forward’s dedicated leadership team is made up of volunteers from a variety of professional organizations in the Washington D.C. area who are proud to serve our community in their spare time and offer the benefit of their diverse experiences and skills.

Strategic Planning and Integration

Joshua Kriger

Joshua started Put Your Best Forward after realizing he ought to do his part to help the Washington D.C. Area community where he has resided since 2000. He is passionate about impacting others by bringing together diverse, civically-minded individuals and organizations. He has done extensive event planning and been involved in helping low-income and homeless individuals for the past 4 years. Professionally, Joshua is a Manager at ICOR Partners – a start-up business transformation consulting firm - based in Arlington, VA.

Melissa Gold

A career publicist and marketing professional, Melissa provides expertise in building awareness through the media on behalf of PBYFF. Over her 11-year career in public relations, she has lent her voice and skills to campaigns for a range of clients including corporations, government entities and non-profits. Melissa’s desire to make a positive impact on her community has led her to work with a myriad of individuals and organizations that make a difference in the world around them. She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and is an active member of the Public Relations Society of America.

Rachel Friedmann

Rachel has experience working in non profits, strategic marketing, and design. Rachel has seven years experience working for non profits and museums in a variety of capacities. She enjoys working behind the scenes and seeing her hard work come to fruition in tangible ways. Her coordination and organizational skills have resulted in increased social networking for PYBFF and she is responsible for design of PYBFF’s logo, website, and marketing collatoral. Currently, she is pursuing a second masters degree in marketing full-time from Johns Hopkins University.

Jessica Achtman

Jessica’s background in meeting planning logistics is being utilized in the multiple roles she is playing coordinating logistics for PYBFF’s Washington D.C. events including workshops, benefits, and clothing drives. Jessica has been in the industry for two years and has successfully planned numerous committee meetings for her association along with helping out with the Annual Meeting of 6,000 attendees. She is very involved within the industry in volunteering on a committee for PCMA (Professional Convention Management Association) that is geared towards members who have been in the industry 1-5 years.