Maria Rodale

Maria Rodale is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Rodale Inc., the global health and wellness content company which created the iconic brands Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Prevention, and Rodale’s Organic Life. Rodale Inc. has also published hundreds of books on health, fitness, food, and the environment, including Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (and) Sequel, Howard Schultz’s Onward, and The South Beach Diet. Maria has authored numerous books, including 2010’s Organic Manifesto. In 2016 she released Scratch, a cookbook based on her former blog, Maria’s Farm Country Kitchen. Maria recently retired as co-chairman of the Rodale Institute, the world’s leading organic agricultural research and education nonprofit. The Institute is dedicated to the organic mission pioneered in 1942 by her grandfather, J.I. Rodale, and later advanced by her father, Robert Rodale. She still serves on the board. Over the years, Maria has been recognized for her public activism by several major organizations. In 2004, the National Audubon Society honored her with its Rachel Carson Award; in 2007, the United Nations Population Fund granted her its Award for the Health and Dignity of Women; and in 2014, Auburn University presented her with the International Quality of Life Award. Maria graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1985 with a dual degree in communications and art and received an honorary doctorate from Delaware Valley University in 2017. Based in Pennsylvania, Maria is a mother to three daughters born in three different decades, a grandmother, and a secret children’s book author.