Margarete Cassalina

Margarete Cassalina is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and longtime advocate for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and African Mission Healthcare. Her bestselling work centers on resilience, motherhood, grief, second chances, and global health. She is the mother of two children born with cystic fibrosis — Eric, a transplant survivor, and Jena, who passed at 13 — a loss that became the foundation of Beyond Breathing, her award-winning grief memoir. Her novel See You at Sunset explores love after loss, a world she returns to in Never Be Afraid to Fly (Dec. 2025). Her book Embracing the Beauty in the Broken is used in workshops and support groups for its tools, prompts, and honesty around growth after crisis. For 30+ years she has helped raise millions for CF research and life-saving surgical care in underserved countries. She writes for midlife women who believe history doesn’t disqualify you — it prepares you for your next chapter. Margarete lives in New York with her husband Marc.