Ria is a leadership and resilience expert, speaker and professional coach. She triumphed over being sexually abused from age 12 - 19 by her father, and escaped by leaving home at 19 without a job, car, or even a high school diploma. Ria successfully applied leadership principles throughout her career in the healthcare industry, learning to lead at all levels with increasing responsibilities, before resigning from corporate life to pursue her passion for coaching, motivational speaking, and leadership development. Ria holds degrees in Office Administration, Human Resource Management, and a Master's Degree in Business Administration. She is a certified leadership coach, speaker and trainer with The John Maxwell Team. Ria is the co-founder of Top Story Leadership, which offers leadership development, training, coaching and consulting.