Maria Odenkirk
Founder of The Mobility Queen Network
Maria Odenkirk is the Founder of The Mobility Queen Network, a platform built to inform, inspire, and innovate on behalf of people navigating disability and mobility challenges.
Maria spent 15 years as a national retail buyer at Sears, where she managed an annual portfolio of $120 million and was responsible for every aspect of the business including product, profit, and marketing. From 2012 to 2018, she moved to the manufacturing side of the industry as Director of the Window Curtain Division for a Chinese manufacturer, overseeing product development, profitability, presentations, and a team based in Shanghai. During this time, she earned a patent for the Grommet Glide Window Curtain, later sold to Bed Bath & Beyond.
Maria's path changed when she suffered a hemorrhagic stroke that left her with lasting physical impairments, including difficulty with ambulatory walking, fine motor skills, and left-hand function. She retained her full cognitive and verbal abilities, placing her in the top 5% of hemorrhagic stroke patients for the skills and cognitive function she preserved. After three years of intensive rehabilitation, she regained her ability to walk, drive, and actively contribute.
Since then, Maria has participated in seven clinical trials with Shirley Ryan, including work with a Samsung hip stimulator to improve her walking gait. These trials gave her a firsthand skill set in product testing and development that now complements her decades of experience in retail and manufacturing.
In 2023, Maria founded themobilityqueen.com to bring these two halves of her experience together: a career built on product, profit, and marketing, and a new understanding of mobility and disability gained through her own recovery. Today, she partners with companies advancing mobility technology and robotics, serving as a leading spokesperson to help close the gap between testing and commercialization. Drawing on her background in product development, her experience as a clinical trial participant, and her lived experience with disability, Maria leads as "The Mobility Queen," working to improve mobility products and outcomes for all.