Tag Archives: Leslie Zeidel

INTRODUCING LESLIE ZEIDEL, THE AUTHOR

Leslie Zeidel, now 73 years old, boasts a stellar career dedicated to advocating for women, the disabled, and children. She earned her degree in Speech and Language Pathology from Boston University School of Education.

She went on to acquire two master’s degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University: one in Speech and Language Pathology, and the other in Marketing Communications, which equipped her with expertise in copywriting for public relations. Driven by her passion, she has dedicated herself to making a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities, those with learning differences, and professionals seeking to enhance their communication skills.

Leslie’s philosophy towards her field can be summed up as follows:

“To have a part, to speak directly from the heart, a city in a mind … To Give, To Take, and To Live.”

She believes that every person with a disability, difference, or unique ability should have access to competent services that utilize multi-sensory approaches. Her inclusive approach aims to support anyone in need. Communication challenges, including speech, reading, articulation, grammar, listening (to surface and underlying meanings), comprehension, memory, and writing, remain among the most prevalent challenges worldwide.

Leslie is the only speech pathologist who has built large-scale companies hiring other speech pathologists and developing ongoing programs for them to expand their learning. She was the first to negotiate contracts on their behalf with hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and home health centers. Her companies offered services for patients and students as well as value-added programs that were educational in nature for her staff and the communities they served.

Her first of four companies grew from a solo endeavor to employing 1,500 Speech Pathologists serving 476 facilities across 14 states between 1978 and 1984. INC. Magazine ranked her companies 82nd, 84th, and 85th among the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. Ad Age Magazine honored her with an award for the best branding in a service business. The company went public on the NYSE in 1984. Subsequently, she founded and successfully sold three smaller companies to publicly traded educational or healthcare companies.

Passionate about her field, Leslie wrote all of the copy for her brand and all of the copy for her value-added programs.

She brought her professional experiences into Follow Me on The Yellow Brick Road, along with a variety of helpful tools to deal with the enormous fears she felt throughout her life. She found that “following the yellow brick road” served as a metaphor instrumental in enabling her to use all those tools. Anyone hamstrung by fear can convert it into combustible energy and harness it for positive ends.

This book is part of a trilogy based on Leslie’s life. It is a gripping story illuminating faith-based tools wrapped in a childhood experience of walking on her own yellow brick road, reinforced by the walls of Children’s Hospital in Boston. She endured 31 operations before the age of 55. Her relationships with men and her family created immense havoc and disruption. She moved through it with the picture in hand of putting one foot in front of the other on her road to victory.

No one has ever explored the insights of The Wizard of Oz into the determinants of adults’ personal and spiritual growth. Dorothy’s ultimate goal was to return home. Each character became self-aware. May each reader find his or her path home to inner peace.