Member since June 2025
Chef Maria Kemp is an Interactive Keynote Speaker and Caregiver Advocate who helps leaders uncover what is actually driving burnout, disengagement, and performance issues.
Performance didn’t change. The context did. What leaders interpret as poor performance is often an employee navigating unseen caregiving responsibilities.
When context is missing, leaders fill in the gaps with assumptions, often get it wrong, and respond in ways that increase disengagement and turnover.
Through a powerful, interactive experience, Maria uses dessert as a leadership tool to challenge assumptions and change how leaders respond in real time. No baking. No catering. No kitchen or setup required. This is a structured, professionally designed learning experience.
Trusted by organizations such as Messer Construction, Sonoco, and Association for Talent Development.
My passion comes from lived experience and knowing what it feels like to be unseen.
I first experienced that as a single parent. Years later, I experienced it again while caregiving for both of my parents over an 8.5-year span, six years apart. In both roles, I saw how easily people carrying enormous responsibility are overlooked, underestimated, or expected to quietly manage it all.
That perspective shapes my work today and how I design experiences that help leaders see what they’ve been missing.
I help organizations recognize the employees they may not fully see and understand how unseen responsibilities are already impacting performance, communication, and retention.
When people feel unseen, performance is misinterpreted. When leaders miss the context, they respond to the wrong problem.
I am committed to helping organizations build cultures where employees do not have to choose between their career and their caregiving responsibilities.
Personal interests: Pilates, strength training, a plant-based lifestyle, wine, and travel.
One of my favorite stories is about my dad, Papa Kemp.
During his last 14 months at 88, living with late-stage Alzheimer’s, every day was unpredictable. He experienced intense paranoia and believed a fellow resident was plotting against him. In reality, that resident was navigating cancer and his next chemotherapy appointment.
One afternoon, an aide was speaking so loudly she was nearly yelling. Without missing a beat, my dad looked her straight in the eye and said, “I may be old, but I can hear.”
I laughed out loud. That was my dad. Sharp. Unfiltered. Still very much himself.
Those moments mattered because they existed alongside the ones that quietly broke my heart.
They remind me how rarely we understand what someone else is carrying or what feels real to them, even if we cannot see it.
Most people are not difficult. They are navigating something we don’t fully understand.
That truth is at the center of my work.
My story begins with knowing what it feels like to be invisible.
I became a single parent at a young age, and as a woman of color, I learned early what it meant to be unseen, overlooked, and underestimated while carrying enormous responsibility. Even with support from my mother, I was forged in that season by necessity, doing everything I could to protect my daughter while keeping my career moving forward.
My path to this work was anything but linear. I moved from a long career in IT consulting to pastry school, to owning a bakery, back to consulting, and eventually launching a pop-up bakery. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected. Food has a unique ability to bring people together and create space for honest conversation. That insight led me to design interactive dessert experiences as a tool for connection and dialogue.
But I had not fully arrived.
I stepped into the caregiver role not once, but twice. First for my mother, Little Mama, and later for my father, Papa Kemp. There were nursing home and retirement community battles, repeated hospitalizations, and cross-country relocations that tested every part of me.
That is when everything connected.
I realized I had been living what most leaders never see. People carrying enormous responsibility outside of work, showing up every day and doing their best to hold it all together.
That realization now drives my work.
I help leaders recognize what they are missing, understand the impact of unseen responsibilities on performance, and respond differently.
Because when people are unseen, performance is misinterpreted. And when leaders miss the context, they lead the wrong problem.
Thank you for the wonderful training and treats! Thank you again for spending time with the cohort to educate us and open our eyes in such a unique and impactful way. This was an experience that I’ll likely remember for the rest of my life.
EXCELLENT PRESENTATION!!! As I mentioned before, you covered ALL the target points I had on my list. I am looking forward to collaborating with you!
Chef Maria’s lived experience, professionalism, and advocacy is what distinguishes her as a vendor and speaker, and why we love bringing her back. She shares her authentic self, follows up with resources, and maintains meaningful connections. We’ve worked with her for several years in multiple capacities.
Maria provided an exceptional presentation on ‘A Caregiver's Journey’ that was practical, well-organized, and tailored to our company’s needs. Multiple employees described the session as vivid, emotionally moving, and highly engaging. Maria made a tough topic comfortable to digest, used relevant scenarios, and followed up with valuable resources. Several attendees said it was the best Brown Bag Lunch yet.
73% of employees are caregivers, and most keep it hidden (Forbes, Harvard Business Review).
This talk equips HR, DEI, wellness leaders, event planners, and employee caregivers themselves with actionable tools, vetted resource lists, and conversation templates to address caregiver strain head-on. Audiences leave knowing how to reduce absenteeism, disengagement, and turnover while improving retention and well-being.
Target Audience: HR leaders, DEI professionals, wellness leaders, employee caregivers
Level: Novice to Intermediate
One of my favorite stories is about my dad, Papa Kemp.
During his last 14 months at 88, living with late-stage Alzheimer’s, every day was unpredictable. He experienced intense paranoia and believed a fellow resident was plotting against him. In reality, that resident was navigating cancer and his next chemotherapy appointment.
One afternoon, an aide was speaking so loudly she was nearly yelling. Without missing a beat, my dad looked her straight in the eye and said, “I may be old, but I can hear.”
I laughed out loud. That was my dad. Sharp. Unfiltered. Still very much himself.
Those moments mattered because they existed alongside the ones that quietly broke my heart.
They remind me how rarely we understand what someone else is carrying or what feels real to them, even if we cannot see it.
Most people are not difficult. They are navigating something we don’t fully understand.
That truth is at the center of my work.
My story begins with knowing what it feels like to be invisible.
I became a single parent at a young age, and as a woman of color, I learned early what it meant to be unseen, overlooked, and underestimated while carrying enormous responsibility. Even with support from my mother, I was forged in that season by necessity, doing everything I could to protect my daughter while keeping my career moving forward.
My path to this work was anything but linear. I moved from a long career in IT consulting to pastry school, to owning a bakery, back to consulting, and eventually launching a pop-up bakery. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected. Food has a unique ability to bring people together and create space for honest conversation. That insight led me to design interactive dessert experiences as a tool for connection and dialogue.
But I had not fully arrived.
I stepped into the caregiver role not once, but twice. First for my mother, Little Mama, and later for my father, Papa Kemp. There were nursing home and retirement community battles, repeated hospitalizations, and cross-country relocations that tested every part of me.
That is when everything connected.
I realized I had been living what most leaders never see. People carrying enormous responsibility outside of work, showing up every day and doing their best to hold it all together.
That realization now drives my work.
I help leaders recognize what they are missing, understand the impact of unseen responsibilities on performance, and respond differently.
Because when people are unseen, performance is misinterpreted. And when leaders miss the context, they lead the wrong problem.
Thank you for the wonderful training and treats! Thank you again for spending time with the cohort to educate us and open our eyes in such a unique and impactful way. This was an experience that I’ll likely remember for the rest of my life.
EXCELLENT PRESENTATION!!! As I mentioned before, you covered ALL the target points I had on my list. I am looking forward to collaborating with you!
Chef Maria’s lived experience, professionalism, and advocacy is what distinguishes her as a vendor and speaker, and why we love bringing her back. She shares her authentic self, follows up with resources, and maintains meaningful connections. We’ve worked with her for several years in multiple capacities.
Maria provided an exceptional presentation on ‘A Caregiver's Journey’ that was practical, well-organized, and tailored to our company’s needs. Multiple employees described the session as vivid, emotionally moving, and highly engaging. Maria made a tough topic comfortable to digest, used relevant scenarios, and followed up with valuable resources. Several attendees said it was the best Brown Bag Lunch yet.
73% of employees are caregivers, and most keep it hidden (Forbes, Harvard Business Review).
This talk equips HR, DEI, wellness leaders, event planners, and employee caregivers themselves with actionable tools, vetted resource lists, and conversation templates to address caregiver strain head-on. Audiences leave knowing how to reduce absenteeism, disengagement, and turnover while improving retention and well-being.
Target Audience: HR leaders, DEI professionals, wellness leaders, employee caregivers
Level: Novice to Intermediate
