Embark

Maria Leonard Olsen: Becoming Your Best Version

November 11, 2021 Season 2 Episode 36
Embark
Maria Leonard Olsen: Becoming Your Best Version
Show Notes Chapter Markers

If there's a university for overcoming obstacles, Maria Leonard Olsen has earned her PhD.  Maria has numerous hyphenates attached to name, in both her struggles and accomplishments. In today's episode, we talk about endurance, the impact of growing up in an interracial family, the power of owning your happiness and how DNA testing has become a genetic Pandora's Box. Thanks for joining us on Embark.

About Maria:

Maria is a biracial woman whose parents were forbidden by law to marry in their home state of Maryland in the early 1960s. She is the mother of two children, a lawyer, journalist and author of two children's books and two non-fiction books. She leads writing/empowerment retreats for women, hosts the “Becoming Your Best Version” podcast and is a co-host of the Inside Out radio show on WPFW-fm, 89.3, in Washington, D.C.

A graduate of Boston College and the University of Virginia School of Law, she served in the Clinton Administration's Justice Department, fostered newborn babies awaiting adoption, and has been on the boards of Children's National Medical Center BOV, the Catholic Coalition for Special Education, GirlsUp and the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Washington.  While in private practice as a litigator in then one of the then-largest law firms in Washington, D.C., Maria was awarded Pro Bono Coordinator of the Year by the D.C. Bar Association.

She has written for several publications including The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Bethesda Magazine, Parenting, BabyTalk and Washington For Women.   Her latest book, 50 After 50--Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life, was published in hardcover in 2018, and in paperback and on Audible in 2019. 

A sought-after speaker, Maria is scheduled to speak at two TEDx events in 2021, in New York City, and Washington, D.C.


https://www.facebook.com/FiftyAfter50/... 

https://www.instagram.com/fiftyafter50/

https://twitter.com/FiftyAfter50

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marialeonardolsen/

www.PelsLaw.com/about/Maria-L-Olsen



Recording 3
Recording 2
Recording 1
Recording 4
Recording 5