Marilou Ryder

Dr. Marilou Ryder is a bestselling author, UMass Global doctoral professor, and women's leadership expert who believes in helping women show up as their best selves on a good day. With an unapologetically bold voice, she delivers empowering messages rooted in real-world research, lived experience, and over a decade as a school superintendent.

A fierce advocate for shifting the narrative for women and girls, Marilou has written 10 empowering books under the Sister to Sister Series for Women and Girls, blending wisdom, humor, and truth-telling. Her work features hundreds of interviews with women across the U.S., tackling confidence, career, ageism, and self-worth head-on.

Her standout 6x6 motivational books—Know Your Worth, Girl, Love Your Age, Girl, and Show Your Worth, Girl—offer quick, visual inspiration and have become go-to reads for women who want real talk in simple form. Her Rules of the Game series helps educational leaders navigate job searches and career advancement with clarity and confidence.

Marilou is currently leading three collaborative Women in Leadership book projects with groups of extraordinary women eager to share their personal stories, leadership journeys, and strategies for thriving in challenging spaces. Each project highlights the power of collective storytelling to inspire, uplift, and equip women to rise together.

Dr. Ryder is known for energizing her readers and audiences to disrupt self-doubt and claim their space—with power and purpose. She's been recognized as a Top Ten Business Woman of the Year, Johns Hopkins Administrator of the Year, California Administrator of the Year, and Brandman University, UMass Global and ACSA Orange County, California Faculy of the Year.

She lives by the ocean in Huntington Beach with her husband, a contemporary art photographer, and her loyal Shih Tzu, Babydoll