As we navigate our environments, form our world views, and create impact, we have choice and agency about how we show up. Our presence, mindset, and heartset matter. In this session, we will explore how to notice, pay attention to, and cultivate our ways of being with intention so that we connect compassion with wisdom and positive impact through the ripples of our presence. We will do this with storytelling of Michelle’s journey of learning meditation, and how it has influenced her as a leader, lawyer, and legislator. Attendees will see how we can weave in practice, practical application, and everyday micro-moments that are accessible to us all.

Michelle Maldonado, JD a former tech lawyer and business leader, is Founder and CEO of Lucenscia (pronounced loo-SENSE-see-ah), a business strategy and leadership development firm. Her work focuses on presence, performance, and impact at the pivotal intersection of mindfulness, emotional intelligence, authenticity, accountability, and compassion, all nestled on a solid foundation of neuroscience and research and taught through an equity lens. In essence, Michelle helps leaders worldwide do their inner work to create positive and sustainable impact to make workplaces and world places more human.

Michelle began meditating at the age of seven and as she has deepened her practice over the years, she has become an internationally certified mindfulness and emotional intelligence teacher and practitioner with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, the International Mindfulness Teachers Association, Genos International, and GolemanEI, respectively.

As a result of her work, Michelle has been recognized among the “12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement” (U.S. 2020), as “Woman of The Year,” “Top Corporate Leader,” and inducted into the Golden Key International Honour Society. Her work has been featured in conference venues and publications including, the DQ Institute in association with the World Economic Forum, the United Nations Global Engagement Summit, the Mindful Leader Summit, Huff Post, and Thrive Global.

In her non-corporate work, Michelle also serves as a part-time legislator in the Virginia House of Delegates where she was named "2022 Rookie Legislator of the Year" and "Education Champion" during her first year in office.

Michelle is a graduate of Barnard College at Columbia University and The George Washington University School of Law. She currently resides in Virginia with her husband, son, and Siberian Husky, Makoda.

CBD 2023: Compassionate Wise Action: Cultivating Presence from Cushion to Corporation to Chamber Floor with Michelle Maldonado is part of the free Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 24- Nov. 2, 2023.

The full Summit schedule is posted at: http://contemplation.stanford.edu/summit. All events are FREE and online.

Registration opens September 12, 2023