Geanina Fripp Emerson is a nonprofit development professional, mental health advocate, and youth empowerment champion. She co-founded The Pollinators Foundation with Marga Fripp in May 2022, with a vision to pollinate wellness, social healing and destigmatize mental illness.

The organization was inspired by their work with family members and dear friends who experience mental health challenges. Serving as their supporters and advocates, Geanina and Marga realized the critical need for holistic healing practices and compassionate support ecosystems for many who feel ashamed and stigmatized, and who do not have access to or cannot afford these services.

It has been a lifelong dream for Geanina to start a non-profit organization with her mom, Marga Fripp, an internationally recognized social entrepreneur in women's empowerment and entrepreneurship, who has inspired Geanina’s passion for impacting social change.

From a young age, Geanina participated alongside her mom in marches and events led by an NGO founded by her mom in Romania, their home country, to fight against domestic violence and enact change in women’s rights. Geanina continued to develop as a leader and changemaker after immigrating to the US in 2001, at the age of eight, and supporting her mom as she worked to advance women’s empowerment and economic opportunity for immigrant, refugee and women facing economic challenges in Washington, DC region.

In her senior year of high school, Geanina was named a Posse Foundation Scholar, being awarded a prestigious merit, full-tuition leadership scholarship to complete her undergraduate studies at Sewanee: The University of the South.

As a Posse Scholar, Geanina experienced first-hand the transformative impact that a committed support system, leadership development training and access to career development opportunities can make on college and career success. The deep impact that The Posse Foundation had on Geanina motivated her to return to Posse after graduating from college, launching her career journey.

As the Career Program Manager, Geanina spent four years empowering the next generation of leaders to achieve their career goals and aspirations by creating access to meaningful, career and career-enhancing opportunities and equipping them with the tools to be successful in the workforce. In 2023, Geanina stepped into a development role at Posse and currently, serves as the Institutional Giving Specialist.