Lessons on Life and Leadership
with Samina Bari
Best-Selling Author, Speaker and Podcast Host | Biotech Executive, Advisor, Board Member & Investor
Samina is now bringing her story and hard-won wisdom to stages, boardrooms, retreats, and breakout rooms around the country—equipping audiences to lead boldly, speak bravely, and live without regret.
Download her speaker kit, one-pager, and headshot below for your event.
Select appearances.
SXSW (Patient Advocacy)
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Aspen Institute Health Innovators Forum (Moderator)
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Bay Area Biotech Forum (M&A Expertise)
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CHIEF NYC: Women & Wealth
SXSW (Patient Advocacy) | Aspen Institute Health Innovators Forum (Moderator) | Bay Area Biotech Forum (M&A Expertise) | CHIEF NYC: Women & Wealth
What people are saying about Samina’s Story:
[Samina’s] story has something for everyone, with profound lessons that are born from the beautiful audacity to prevail and succeed.
— Denice Torres, Healthcare Executive and Board Member, Career/Life Strategist, Host of Flip the Tortilla Podcast
“She gives voice to what so many of us carry in silence.”
This is a fully human story that is relatable for so many of us bridging multiple identities.
— Julie Castro Abrams, CEO and Chair of How Women Lead, General Partner at How Women Invest
Why book Samina?
Samina brings clarity, courage, and honesty to the stage, equipping audiences to lead boldly and live without regret.
Samina Bari is a biotech executive, board advisor, and best-selling author of I Can, I Will & I Did: Lessons on Life, Love, and Leadership.
She speaks with clarity, courage, and unfiltered honesty, inviting audiences into hard, human conversations — and equipping them with tangible ways to show up and lead.
Her upcoming book, Don’t Call Me Widow (available October 20, 2025), expands her message into one of the hardest human experiences: partner loss, and explores how to truly support or show up for someone navigating this profound loss.
Her keynotes help audiences:
Lead with conviction and self-trust in spaces not built for them
Navigate identity and leadership without leaving parts of themselves behind
Support grieving colleagues and families with presence that matters more than words
Reimagine success with authenticity, resilience, and courage
Meeting Planners:
Samina’s keynote topics expand on the lessons in her best-selling memoir, I Can, I Will & I Did, and her forthcoming book, Don’t Call Me Widow: blending lived experience with actionable strategies for leadership, resilience, and navigating profound loss.
Keynotes
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Themes:
Redefining success on your own terms
Questioning inherited expectations
Unlearning limiting cultural and societal norms
Trusting your voice and inner knowing
Building resilience after rejection or discouragement
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Navigating environments that misread confidence
Speaking with clarity and conviction
Setting boundaries without apology
Reclaiming presence and visibility
Leading with authenticity, not assimilation
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Creating connection when it wasn’t modeled
Redefining belonging and support
Healing from emotional distance
Choosing relationships rooted in trust
Cultivating the life you needed—but didn’t have
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Losing a partner isn’t just grief—it’s identity collapse. It changes your future, your dreams, even your memories. In this talk, Samina Bari breaks the silence around partner loss, the most disorienting grief we rarely prepare for. She offers powerful, specific ways to show up for someone whose life has shattered—and asks one question that stays with you:
If you died first, what kind of support would you want for the person you loved most?
Breakthroughs that Resonate Across Every Audience.
Audiences, including rising professionals, leaders, caregivers, and communities of support will leave inspired to face hard conversations with trust and authenticity.
They’ll walk away with practical tools for resilience and actionable strategies to show up: in life, in leadership, and in moments that matter most.
Samina Bari brings a voice that is:
Unapologetically bold — refusing to stay silent or small, even in rooms that weren’t built for her
Radically honest — speaking the truths we’re often too afraid to name, from cultural expectations to unbearable loss
Deeply practical — offering more than inspiration: real tools for living, leading, and showing up
Rooted in identity — reshaping what it means to lead as a woman, a first-gen American, a grieving spouse, and a truth-teller
Transformational — turning personal pain into collective power, and personal stories into shared breakthroughs
Drawing on themes shared in her best-selling memoir I Can, I Will & I Did: Lessons on Life, Love, and Leadership, Samina speaks about what it’s like to grow up amidst the deep contradictions of clashing cultures, what it means to make your own way, and what it takes to navigate the corporate world without guidance.
Two books. One fierce voice.
I Can, I Will & I Did is the story of how she rose.
Don’t Call Me Widow is the guide for how she survived.
Both invite us to show up—for ourselves and for each other—with honesty, courage, and compassion.
Her new book, Don't Call Me Widow (coming October 2025), is a bold, practical guide to show up for someone grieving the loss of a spouse or partner. This is not a book about grief—it’s about how to help someone you care about through this significant loss.
Drawing from her own lived experience, Samina invites audiences into a hard, human conversation about partner loss and equips them with tangible ways to show up in ways that matter.
Also launching in October:
The “After Life” podcast explores what it means to support someone who has recently lost their spouse. It is a space for real talk, real stories, and honest advice drawn from first-hand experiences—shared by those who walked alongside Samina after the sudden loss of her husband in 2023, as well as others who have navigated similar grief.
See Samina Next…
The 6th Annual SheIsMe Conference – a powerful, global gathering where women’s voices rise together to create change.
