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Maria Ross She/Her

TEDxSpeaker, Keynotes, Workshops, Leadership Training, Brand Advisory, Author & Podcast Host, The Empathy Edge.
Fields of expertise:
Women's History Month Empathy in the Workplace Author Psychological Safety

Maria Ross is a speaker, leadership trainer, author, and empathy advocate who believes cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive. She’s spent decades helping forward-thinking leaders and teams connect and engage through empathy to accelerate growth and impact. Maria has authored multiple books, including her most recent, The Empathy Edge and hosts The Empathy Edge podcast.

Maria understands the power of empathy on a personal level: In 2008, shortly after launching her business, she suffered a near-fatal ruptured brain aneurysm and inspired her memoir, Rebooting My Brain.

Her next book The Empathy Dilemma: How Successful Leaders Balance Performance, People, and Personal Boundaries, arrives Fall 2024. Maria has appeared in many prominent media outlets, including MSNBC, NPR, Forbes.com, ABC News, Entrepreneur and Thrive Global. She has spoken at companies and conferences ranging from TEDx to the 3% Conference. Her writing has appeared in Entrepreneur.com, Newsweek, and Huffington Post. Maria lives in Pacifica, California with her husband and young son and speaks worldwide.

What our clients say about this speaker

Maria is an excellent speaker. She is warm, authentic, intelligent and very knowledgeable. Her message about the empathy advantage is highly needed for all teams & organizations.

Amer Kaissi, PHD

Maria is an engaging, inspiring speaker who brings all of her knowledge, life experience, and delightful personality to her speaking engagements. She recently provided a workshop to a group of future executives at CHRISTUS Health on The Empathy Edge: How to Harness the Power of Compassion for Stronger Leadership, Culture, and Patient Experience. Over the course of our 3-day retreat, Maria's presentation was the favorite of the group! She helped the group understand the business case for empathy and provided practical tools and strategies for strengthening empathy in the workplace. We will definitely invite her to speak for future groups at CHRISTUS.

Director of Leadership Development

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