Elena Joy Thurston with Elena Joy Experience and Vera Minot with Southwest Solutions
Elena Joy Experience is a certified LGBTQ-owned and women-owned consulting company that offers training, coaching, speaking, and consultation. We increase authentic and sustainable Inclusive Leadership through: 
- Inclusive Leadership training workshops
- Human Resource and Public Relation department trainings
- ERG support strategy
- Executive Coaching that focuses on inclusion and impactful Vocal Empowerment for leaders from marginalized communities
- Keynote speaking engagements that allow for transformational experiences
Our mission is to increase inclusion in real and sustainable ways, through transformational experiences and communication. We believe that organizations specifically and society at large can prevent suicide and homelessness in the LGBTQ+ community by authentically increasing inclusion, safety, and belonging, while simultaneously increasing profit.
We envision a world in which every LGBTQ+ employee is safe at work and proud of the impact their employers are having on the world.
Featured in the award-winning documentary, CONVERSION, Elena Joy Thurston is an inspirational Diversity & Allyship speaker, trainer, and author through a lens of LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Elena Joy inspires her audiences to learn how Inclusive Leadership can improve company morale and productivity, changing members’ lives in a practical way.
A Mormon mom of four who lost her marriage, her church, and her community when she came out as a lesbian, her viral TEDx talk on surviving conversion therapy has been viewed more than 45,000 times and landed her media and speaking opportunities with ABC, CBS, FOX, Penn State, University of North Texas, Michael’s, Logitech, and more.
Connect with Elena Joy on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Southwest Solutions is an award winning marketing materials agency that has been going the extra mile for their clients since 2014.
With a diverse team comprising more than 45 years of experience in the industry, they help people think beyond the product and leverage the emotional exchange that marketing actually is.
Vera Minot is the Creative Director for, and part owner of, Southwest Solutions – an award winning promotional design company. She is a heart-first professional who’s known for her creativity; aversion to small talk; and appreciation good vocabulary and clever marketing materials.
She studied Linguistics and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona, and after stints in a variety of industries that converged into a unique perspective on business and humans, she joined the team at SWS.
She never knew she’d love her industry so much, but every business or organization has a unique brand story to tell, and when she realized promotional products & custom apparel don’t have to be boring (nor do they have to be straight-to-the-trash-swag) she was hooked!
In her free time, Vera serves as the President of the Tucson LGBT Chamber of Commerce – cultivating a safe space for queer folks in business but also a space of learning for allies who are tremendously important to the LGBTQIA+ community.
In the free time that’s left, you’ll find her being active, tending to too many houseplants, reading, and hanging out with her wife and their cats.
Connect with Vera on LinkedIn.
