Speaker Bio
Maria Leonard Olsen graduated from Boston College and the University of Virginia School of Law. She is an attorney, radio talk show host, podcaster (“Becoming Your Best Version”), writing and women’s empowerment retreat instructor, editor, and public speaker on diversity issues and living a life authentic to one’s values.
Her work has been published by The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, Bethesda Magazine, among others. She served in the Clinton Justice Department prior to having children, and recently returned to practicing law now that she is an empty-nester. “Mommy, Why’s Your Skin So Brown?” about being mistaken as the brown-skinned nanny of her lighter-skinned children, is her first children’s book. “Healing for Hallie,” about the importance of expressing feelings, is her second.
Her first adult non-fiction book, “Not the Cleaver Family–The New Normal in Modern American Families,” was released in 2016. “50 After 50–Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life,” was published in hardcover by Rowman & Littlefield in June 2018, and in paperback/audio in October 2019. Book review by The Boston Globe:
She is available for book talks on any or all of her titles. See www.MariaLeonardOlsen.com and C-Span coverage of recent presentation www.c-span.org/video/?427995-2/cleaver-family
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