Michelle Maldonado is an example of what happens when someone believes in you. A wife, mother, community leader, small business owner, and advocate for the marginalized voiceless, Michelle is breaking down barriers for herself and the generations to follow. Michelle’s journey hasn’t been without challenges; like many change-makers, her story starts with a measure of trial and hardship.

Michelle was born in the Massachusetts beach town of Falmouth on Cape Cod. Her family comes from Cape Verde, which is off the western coast of Africa, near Senegal. Cape Verdeans’ first language is Portuguese, and the culture is very similar to Latin American cultures. Cape Verdean immigration to the United States began in the early 19th century. One of the major forces that brought Cape Verdeans to the Americas was the whaling industry. During this time, many Cape Verdeans joined American whaling crews in order to escape Cape Verde, a land plagued with limited natural resources and an oppressive Portuguese colonial government until they earned their independence in 1975. Michelle’s rich history is comprised of immigrants along with active duty military and educators. Her grandmother was the first Black principal on Cape Cod, and her grandfather was an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen.

At a young age, Michelle’s parents separated. During this time, Michelle moved around a lot. She went to three elementary schools, three middle schools, and three high schools. This constant transitioning made it difficult for Michelle to settle down, however, her gift of gab made it easy to make friends. As an adult, she notes that while she didn’t appreciate this as a child, she loves that she can go anywhere in the country and have people she knows.

Times were hard financially as well. Michelle recalls moving to Texas and living in a mobile home park, but her family was so poor they could not afford a mobile home, so they lived in a camping trailer. The 70s were also a time where Michelle experienced racism. Living between Texas and Virginia, racism was blatant. Sometimes white children would say that they could not play with her because she was Black, or they would use a derogatory racial slur to describe her. Even then, Michelle had developed a personality that forced her to speak up. Michelle shared one experience where a group of white kids told her their parents said they weren’t allowed to play with her and then referred to her as a derogatory name. She responded, “Well that’s stupid because I’m a lot of fun.” That was just the beginning of Michelle using her voice to speak out against the negative behavior that comes from biases that are ingrained in us at a young age.

A pivotal moment for Michelle was in fifth grade. Michelle was facing a variety of challenges at home that could have sent her on a wrong path. Abuse, neglect and addiction were but a few of the chaotic elements that Michelle was being exposed to. Michelle’s fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Oursler, was intuitive enough to realize that something was going on. School was always a place of serenity for Michelle. She excelled academically and was a high achieving student, but Mrs. Oursler could tell that emotionally something was going on and that she was struggling in school. Taking her under her wing, she poured love into Michelle. That special interest that this teacher took in Michelle gave her the validation she needed to know she could find her way to do something great in the world. Years later, Michelle found that teacher and thanked her for the support she gave her and continues the relationship to this day.

Michelle went to Barnard College of Columbia University, a private women’s liberal arts college in New York City. As she became more exposed to the exploitation of women in the world, specifically in the corporate setting, Michelle decided she was going to do something about it. Wanting to go into Law but also having a desire to embrace the Spanish culture and language, Michelle created her own combined Major that would incorporate both passions since none existed. Michelle then attended The George Washington University Law School and practiced law for 8 years and then switched over to the corporate side.

Michelle specializes in designing and providing training and support programs focused on resilience, compassion, emotional intelligence, mindful leadership and performance through an equity lens. Her form of training, along with her expertise in this area, landed her several contracts, which eventually allowed her to leave her corporate job in 2018 and work for herself training various sectors of business, government and non-profits.

One program that Michelle taught created such an emotional response from one attendee that another attendee invited her to go to Canada and train the Canadian Law Enforcement and government executives. Shortly after that, the United Nations Foundation and The United States Department of Homeland Security invited Michelle to design training programs for humanitarian aid workers and senior leaders for all components, respectively. The United States Customs and Border Protection agency then became a direct client of Michelle’s which allowed her to work firsthand with executives and agents helping them have the conversation around leadership presence, compassion and law enforcement.

After the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill, Michelle was invited to help Congressional staffers recover, process, and rebuild bridges internally.

Michelle has created local events and activities to assist the youth in the community. She takes pride in having a resume of changing rules, breaking barriers, building bridges and doing so intentionally as a beautiful and natural woman of color. Michelle also shares that focusing on your what and your why is important, but she never forgets the how. How she operates and how she shows up is just as important as her why.

Her message to women is this, “We have the power to write our own story and our own narrative. Never give that power to anyone else. How we show up in the world and how we do what we do matters. Invite others to share the stage because we need all hands on deck.”

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Michelle Maldonado is seeking the Democratic nomination for House District 50. Click here for more information.

As a Woman… is a weekly column discussing the unique challenges and solutions in health, wealth, finance, and relationships. If you would like to share in the conversation email, lharlem@pwperspective.com