Maria Leonard Olsen 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. She leads writing/empowerment retreats for women, and is a cohost/producer of the Inside Out radio show on WPFW-FM, 89.3, in Washington, D.C. Maria graduated from Boston College and the University of Virginia School of Law, served in the Clinton administration’s Department of Justice, fostered newborn babies awaiting adoption, and has been on the boards of Children’s National Medical Center BOV, the Catholic Coalition for Special Education, the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Washington, and the GirlsUp Advisory Board. She has written for The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Bethesda Magazine, Parenting, BabyTalk, and Washington for Women. She recently returned to practicing law now that her children are launched. She wrote her first children’s book, Mommy, Why’s Your Skin So Brown?, about being mistaken for the nanny of her lighter-skinned children. Healing for Hallie, about the importance of expressing one’s feelings, is her second children’s book. Not the Cleaver Family—The New Normal in Modern American Families, exploring changes in the composition of American families during this past decade, was released in 2016. Maria has spoken at numerous schools and events, including the Mixed Remixed Festival in Los Angeles, the Japanese American National Museum’s Family Day, the Washington Independent Review of Books, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Asian American Month Celebration (as the highest-ranking Asian American political appointee then at the Justice Department). Maria counsels women recovering from alcoholism, other addictions, and trauma. See www.MariaLeonardOlsen.com for additional information.