ABOUT OUR FOUNDER – 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 Maria I. Melendez for speaking engagements, keynote speeches or empowerment workshops, please fill out our speaker request form here.
Watch Her in Action Below:
Raised in Brooklyn, Maria successfully achieved her goals while going against the odds. She excelled as a scholar and graduated Cum Laude from Hofstra University with a marketing degree. It was during her time at Hofstra University where Maria grew an infinite passion of empowering others, especially women. She had already overcome her own struggles as an Afro-Latina growing up in the inner city (including a failed suicide attempt). She realized that had it not been for her faith, mentors and education that she would not have been privileged with all the opportunities that came her way. Maria set out on a mission of leading other young women to victoriously do as she did. During her senior year of college, Maria landed an internship which led to a coveted position at Warner Music Group where she created and managed ground-breaking marketing campaigns for artists including Jay-Z, Toni Braxton, T.I., Trey Songz, and others. Maria’s marketing and promotion prowess only flourished and essentially fueled her life-long passion of starting her own company. After facing her own fears, she resigned from Warner Music Group to launch Embrace Her Legacy so she could live in her purpose. Maria continues to soar as a leader and advocate for empowering women and girls to realize their dreams.
Hear her share a little about the history behind Embrace Her Legacy: