Meet Mischa

Before becoming an executive coach and a more recognized professional storyteller, for 33 years, Mischa Duffie was a human development specialist with a primary focus on empowering women and girls. In this capacity, Mischa and her team developed a national reputation for providing strength-based programs and instruction that was designed to improve behavioral, emotional, and social outcomes for the over 85 corporations, educational institutions, churches, and community-based organizations they collaborated with. 

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Having recalibrated in January 2018 at the ripe age of fifty to align more strategically with her second act, Mischa dissolved her for profit, Greatness Now, dissolved her nonprofit, Girls as CEOs Foundation, and relocated from Maryland to California with nothing more than the gifts that made her an award-winning community leader and sought after national speaker. Success in California was immediate. In 2018, Mischa was hired as the ghostwriter on a multiple book deal. In 2019, she became a contributing writer for the illustrious Suite Life SoCal Magazine. In 2020, she became the story development coach to one of Hollywood’s premier screenplay writers and a Pulitzer Prize winning writer. In 2021, she was handpicked by the legendary broadcast journalist, Tavis Smiley, to host her own show, THE BACK STORY WITH MISCHA DUFFIE, on his radio station, KBLA Talk Radio 1580 AM, which returned her to the radio airwaves 15 years after hosting EVERY WOMEN on 88.9 FM in Baltimore. In 2022, Mischa was tapped by the Blufford Book Festival to moderate a conversation with New York Times Bestselling author Karin Slaughter whose novel Pieces of Her was adapted into a series which streamed on Netflix. At the same time, Mischa was also tapped by the Leimert Park Village Book Fair to moderate a conversation with seasoned actress and one of the stars of ABC’s hit show black-ish, Jenifer Lewis. In 2023, Mischa became credentialed press with several prominent Los Angeles theater houses, which has resulted in her serving as a regular moderator of post-show talkbacks. And in 2024, Mischa is excitedly working on her new podcast and the completion of her 25th book.

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As the host of THE BACK STORY, Mischa’s warm personality and welcoming approach to engaging in conversation has not only resulted in the show being picked up for its fourth year, but it has also resulted in more and more PR agents submitting a request to have their clients join the ranks of acclaimed guests such as her longtime mentor Tavis Smiley, Emmy Award winner Tabitha Brown, New York Times bestselling author and Super Soul Sunday guest Lynne Twist, Queen Sugar showrunner Anthony Sparks, comedian Luenell, actor Omar Sharif, Jr., former Good Day LA morning host Michaela Pereira, 2021 National Book Award for Fiction Winner Jason Mott, former showrunner for Law & Order: SVU Warren Leight, co-founder of Movie Pass Stacy Spikes, CBS Lead National Correspondent David Begnaud, Star Wars franchise Jar Jar Binks character Ahmed Best, and Academy Award winner and Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney. A lover of words and stories, this prolific author of 24 books firmly believes that very few things allow us to see the humanity of one another better than shared stories.

 

Because of her abiding desire for us to see the humanity in one another, Mischa became increasingly disturbed by the proliferation of meanness, loneliness, and helplessness that is saturating our society. At the same time, because she knows the power of rolling up one's sleeves to create the change we want to see, she formed and introduced the world to her new mission THE INTEGRITY INSTITUTE, LLC on December 1, 2024. The institute goes full throttle with a roll out of new projects, services, and experiences to help individuals honorably master the most powerful institution known to man: self at the start of 2025. 

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