Our Mission & Vision
Embrace Her Legacy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit personal development organization dedicated to equipping millennial women and Gen Z girls with the tools needed to overcome internal and external challenges in fulfilling a purpose-driven legacy. Our vision is that every girl and every woman defeats her inner saboteur, masters her relationship with self and lives out her legacy…unapologetically.
We offer an extensive range of transformative social-emotional, personal and leadership development programs, workshops and coaching in New York City and around the country with a specific focus on serving millennial women and Gen Z girls of color.
Since inception, we’ve impacted more than 15,000 women and girls worldwide in over 35 countries through our programs, workshops, social media and podcast and we’ve reached 2,500 women and girls in the NYC/tri-state area alone.
Meet Our Founder & Chief Executive Officer: Maria I. Melendez
As the CEO and founder of Embrace Her Legacy, mentor, speaker, podcast host, author, social entrepreneur, and women and girls leadership advocate – Maria I. Melendez has embraced her mission of empowering others to live a life that embraces a limitless legacy. Featured in FORBES, ESSENCE magazine, Latina.com, and recipient of several notable accolades, she is an influential leader whose faith, zealous drive, experience, framework, story and impact are key to her transformative personal and leadership development work in women and girls around the world. Delivering more than 100 talks, including her TedX talk “A Time to Heal”, her contemporary style of transparency, authenticity, wit, humor and positivity are key in her message of transformation.
After leaving her high-profile career in the music business to pursue her purpose of educating and transforming the lives of women and girls, Maria (who has been deemed by clients and peers as your personal “Goals Girlfriend” or “Inspirational Homegirl”) has proven that she is the essence of living a purpose and legacy driven life in order to inspire others to follow suit. She’s a proud Brooklyn, NY native who received her Bachelor’s of Business Administration from Hofstra University and her Executive Master’s of Public Administration at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
For booking us for speaking engagements, keynote speeches or empowerment workshops, please fill out our speaker request form here.
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