Welcome to my website!

Who I Am

I am a spiritual being having a very real human experience as Theresa and John Leeke’s daughter and a descendent of the Akan people of Ghana, the Yoruba people of Nigeria, the Indigeneous people of Turtle Island (USA), and European people.

I was born and spent the first four years of my life on the sacred land of the Ojibwe people in Flint, Michigan. I was raised on the sacred land of the Piscataway people in Landover and Mitchellville, Maryland.

In astrology, my sun and rising signs are in Sagittarius. My Moon and North Node are in Gemini (7th house; I was born on a Full Moon). My midheaven is in Virgo with an IC (imum coeli) in Pisces. My Mercury is in Sagittarius (1st house), Venus + Neptune in Scorpio (12th house), Mars + Uranus + Pluto in Virgo (9th House), Jupiter in Taurus (6th House), Saturn + Chiron (3rd House) in Pisces, and Lilith in Capricorn.

My Human Design energy type is manifesting generator with a sacral authority and 5/1 profile. My Myers-Briggs personality type is INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging).

I share my gifts, skills, and expertise as an award-winning Thriving Mindfully Coach, an artist, an author, and a Human Design Doula in Washington, DC. I am also a legally ordained interfaith reverend who holds space for and officiates sacred life celebrations and ceremonies.

I discovered mindfulness, self-care, and wellness when my career as a lawyer, an investment banker, and a digital communications professional stressed me out, caused burnout, and did not produce the level of success I expected. Throughout my healing journey, I have studied and practiced meditation, yoga, reiki, journaling, art-making, creative writing, sound healing, digital wellness, astrology, chakra and crystal therapies, and Human Design. They helped me develop self-care practices, navigate change, and become resilient. As a result, I became a certified yoga and mindfulness meditation teacher, a digital wellness educator, a reiki master practitioner, a sound healer, and an artist-in-residence for the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Today, I lead Ananda Leeke Consulting, a wellness company, and the Thriving Mindfully Academy an online learning platform and membership network. Through my work, I am able to hold space for and support the growth and resiliency of mission-driven individuals, companies, organizations, and communities. My clients have included Amazon, Georgetown University Law Center, Nonprofit Technology Network, Sistas 4 Digital Equity, World Wildlife Fund, and more.

What I Do

I think, write, speak, teach, train, coach, mentor, and create art, books, digital content (podcasts and videos), and resources about mindfulness, self-care, wellness, digital wellness, creativity, leadership, grief, loss, resiliency, and Human Design. I explore these areas through the lens of how people nurture themselves and navigate their life and career. I weave them into the services I provide through Ananda Leeke Consulting and the Thriving Mindfully Academy.

Why I Serve

My intention and mission is to help one person at a time outsmart stress and burnout, embrace digital wellness, tap into creativity, navigate change, become resilient, and embrace and express thriving mindfully. My personal goal is to empower as many people as I can with the education, training, and practices they need to show up, show out, and soar as their full selves.

Who I Serve

Everyday people just like you who work in companies, government, organizations (including colleges and universities), and communities

Professional Bios & Photos

Looking for my professional bio and photos? Click here. Scroll down to read my short bio. Feel free to use them to promote interviews and events I participate in.

Wanna know more about my mindfulness journey and chameleon career? Read The Story of Moi below.

How to Keep Up with Me

• To see what I am up to from week to week, follow @anandaleeke on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube.
• Email me {ananda@anandaleeke.com} to discuss how we can work together.

Professional Bio & Photos

Go here for my professional bio and photos.

Short Bio

Ananda Leeke discovered mindfulness, self-care, and wellness when her career as a lawyer, an investment banker, and a digital communications professional stressed her out, caused burnout, and did not produce the level of success she expected. During Ananda’s healing journey, she studied and practiced meditation, yoga, reiki, journaling, art-making, and creative writing. They helped her develop self-care practices, navigate change, and become resilient. As a result, she became a certified yoga + mindfulness teacher, a digital wellness educator, a reiki master practitioner, a sound healer, and an artist-in-residence for the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Today, she coaches and trains high achievers and mission-driven companies, organizations, and communities to outsmart stress and burnout, to embrace digital wellness, to tap into creativity, to navigate change, to become resilient, and to thrive mindfully. As the Chief Mindfulness Officer of Ananda Leeke Consulting, she leads a wellness company that specializes in personal and professional development, and the Thriving Mindfully Academy, an online education platform and network. She serves as a Human Design Doula and a legally ordained interfaith reverend, and hosts and produces the Thriving Mindfully Podcast.

In 2019, Ananda was selected by lululemon to serve as a lululemon luminary, received Acquisition International’s Influential Businesswoman in Professional Development – USA Award, and was named a Well-Being Warrior by the Well-Being and Equity Bridging Network. Her books, Love’s Troubadours, a yoga-inspired novel; That Which Awakens Me, a mindful creativity memoir; and Digital Sisterhood, a mindful technology memoir, are available on Amazon. Currently, she and her father Dr. John F. Leeke are co-writing his memoir, Change Agent. She is also writing her third memoir, Thriving Mindfully as Theresa’s Daughter.

She speaks at conferences and events, conducts trainings, and leads coaching sessions for Amazon, Allied Media Project/ZEAL Press, Association of Wedding Professionals, Automattic/WordPress, BlogHer, Body Connect Health Wellness, Community Associations Institute, Eaton DC, Georgetown University Law Center, Insight LA, Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC, Institute for Medicaid Innovation, Keela, Marisla Foundation, National Association of Corporate Directors, National Collective for Health Equity, Nonprofit Technology Network, Sierra Club, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, The Conference Board, World Wildlife Fund, and Wonder Women Tech Summit.

Ananda is a proud alumna of Georgetown University Law Center, Howard University School of Law, Morgan State University, and Elizabeth Seton High School. She is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. She lives on the sacred land of the Piicataway people in Washington, DC. Learn more at AnandaLeeke.com.

Story of Moi

Childhood

Michigan born. Maryland raised. Elizabeth Seton and Morgan State educated. Howard and Georgetown Law trained. I am the only daughter of Theresa and John Leeke, two groovy people who raised me and my three brothers Mike, Mark, and Matt to be free in how we live and express ourselves during the late 1960s and 1970s. Our rose and white house on Manson Place in Landover, Maryland was filled with an abundance of love, creativity, conversation, laughter, music, a dog named Clarence, books, and magazines.

My bedroom was painted hot pink and lavender. It was my sanctuary. The place where I felt most at home. The place where I dreamed in the dark about being an artist+writer+ radio host+lawyer, colored on paper and the walls, drew pictures with magic markers, read and wrote poetry in lower case letters like poet ntozake shange, practiced dance moves I borrowed from Soul Train and American Bandstand, and listened to the sounds of the Supremes, Temptations, and Jackson Five.

How I Became An Artist & Writer

My mother, Theresa is the most creative person I know. She used her studies and experience as a musician and early childhood teacher to teach my brothers and I that CREATIVITY IS IMAGINATION. Mommy encouraged us to use our imagination to create art, poetry, greeting cards, science projects, toys, and spaces we could play in. Also, she taught us how to make our own Play Dough from scratch. We used it to sculpt animals, trees, flowers, cars, buildings, and people. On rainy days, she told us to use our imagination to create fun times. My brother, Mike, a comic book graphic artist, was often the leader. One rainy day, he drew guitars on cardboard boxes so we could imitate the Jackson Five with our neighbor Stan. We cut the guitars out and used magic markers to decorate them.

During our winter, spring, and summer breaks from school, my mother made sure we visited the Smithsonian to learn about art, culture, history, and music in the U.S. and world. Our museum visits inspired me to take an art appreciation class during my freshmen year at Elizabeth Seton High School. That class opened the door to my love affair with French impressionism, Frida Kahlo, and the Japanese Edo period.

My high school years were fertile ground for my poetry writing. Most of it was inspired by the work of Dr. Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and ntozake shange. It happened while I was walking and delivering the Washington Post in my neighborhood, riding the bus and subway on my way home from school, and  sitting in my room listening to the music of Billie Holiday and the Quiet Storm, an evening program on WHUR 96.3 FM. Poetry is where I found my voice as a teenager. It helped me see myself for myself.

Legal Career Journey

My love affair with creativity was interrupted in my junior year by a passionate new lover called Practical Law, a class I desperately wanted to take, but could not because it was offered to seniors. When I expressed my interest in the class, the teacher encouraged me to submit a request to take it and prepare an argument to persuade her. Guess what? I did it and took the class in my junior year. It was life changing. At 16, I began the journey of becoming a lawyer.

My decision to pursue a legal career gave me a clear goal. Everything I did for the remainder of high school and during college was geared towards my legal career. My Morgan State University advisor, Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre helped me develop a four-year plan that included my French major, Spanish minor, G.P.A., extracurricular activities, internships, honors, and awards. With the support of my parents, family, friends, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, mentors, Dr. McIntrye, and other professors, I was accepted into my first choice, Howard University School of Law.

Law school did not come easy for me. I struggled during my first year. That’s when I learned how to isolate myself and only focus on my legal studies and internships. This strategy helped me get the work done and obtain great experience. However, it hurt my ability to be fully present in my life and relationships. It opened the door to many unhealthy practices that included far too many days without adequate sleep, junk food, and self-medicating anxiety and fear with liquor. My life was out of balance and I didn’t know it.

I wish I could say things got better after I graduated from law school and began working as a law clerk for Administrative Law Judge Robert E. Duncan at the U.S. Commodities Futures and Trading Commission, but they didn’t. Bar exam failures flooded my life. Depression set in. Instead of dealing with it, I pushed through. I went deeper into my isolation and focused on passing the bar exam.

One afternoon while I was chatting with Judge Duncan, he asked me what I planned to do once my clerkship ended. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to answer the question because I didn’t want to work as a commodities and securities regulation attorney in the Federal Government. Recognizing my hesitation, he encouraged me to speak freely. I expressed my thoughts and fears. He welcomed them with an offer to brainstorm about my career plan. We talked about how much I loved to research and write. He suggested I consider teaching and earning a Master of Laws at Georgetown University Law Center. My face lit up with a smile. The next day I called Georgetown to request an application. A week later, we prepared and mailed it. When I showed him my acceptance letter, he hugged me and told me I could use my afternoons to complete my homework during the first semester. What a blessing!

My Georgetown experience was one of the most academically fulfilling experiences I ever had. I fell head over heels in love with investment banking. My advisor and  classmates were amazing. They worked in mid-level to senior positions in banks, government agencies, and law firms. Their advice on how I should pursue my newfound passion for investment banking was invaluable.

Healing Begins

By the time I graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991, I was clear about my career. It was investment banking all the way. The problem was I couldn’t find a job to save my life. That’s when the depression I had been dodging reared its ugly head. It flatlined me and drop kicked me into what I now know was a dark night of the soul. All my stuff I had refused to face came up. It was beyond overwhelming. I no longer found comfort in the Catholic Church I was raised in. My soul was lost.

Thankfully my parents stepped in and provided a lifeline that stabilized me emotionally and financially. Their support gave me space to heal and discover who I was becoming. Within an 18-month period, I reached out to my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority sisters Kamaria Richmond and Karla Ray Thompson who exposed me to vegetarianism, self-care books and tools, African and Native American spiritual practices, and creative communities. Together, we explored our creativity as writers, Buddhist meditation, and other alternative healing practices in the early 1990s.

After attending a women’s healing conference led by Dr. Iyanla Vanzant at Howard University in 1995, I joined First Sunday, a monthly meditation and prayer circle, that helped me face my fears with prayer and acceptance, develop a regular meditation and yoga practice, and nurtured my gifts as an artist, poet, speaker, and writer.

Creative Entrepreneurship

My healing journey transformed my emotional, physical, and spiritual health. It opened the door to a new life as a vegetarian, meditation practitioner, and creative entrepreneur.  It helped me find my voice as a writer and launch Sunsum Communications, a company that published my first collection of poetry, My Soul Speaks in 1992.

While pursuing my entrepreneurial efforts, I realized I needed to supplement my income with full-time employment that included health insurance and retirement benefits. So I accepted an offer to serve as the Debt Manager in the DC Office of the Treasurer in 1993. Working in municipal finance was stressful. My spiritual practices and writing calmed me most days. After one particular grueling municipal bond deal, I began using coathangers to create wire sculptures to release the stress.

My mentor Barbara Arnwine, former Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, saw one of my sculptures peeking out of my bag during one of my visits to her office. Barbara asked me to explain what it was. Using my imagination, I told her it was a “Divine Diva” that celebrated the power women have to transform their lives. Without hesitation, she ordered 200 sculptures for the first African American Women and the Law Conference. Her order launched my career as a mixed media artist in 1995.

Leaping Into Investment Banking

Shortly after the African American Women and the Law Conference, I met Catherine Austin Fitts, the founder of the Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., a woman-owned investment bank and financial software firm that represented the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and launched a data servicing startup in DC public housing. I loved the way Austin and her team married their social justice commitment to investment banking. When I left DC Government a few months later, she offered me a position as a transaction manager for a $7 billion FHA mortgage deal in 1996.

While I was at Hamilton, she empowered me to release my investment banking career and create a new one in digital communications and intellectual property law management. With her encouragement and guidance, I learned how to negotiate a salary that reflected my worth, rise to a leadership position, and represent the firm at the U.N. Conference on Habitat in Istanbul, Turkey. My Hamilton days were exciting and exhausting all at the same time. Little did I know they were contributing to high levels of stress and anxiety.

Therapy Does in Fact Work!

My Hamilton experience ended abruptly a year and a half after it began. The U.S. Department of Justice sued the firm and froze its assets. Sadly, it closed its doors. On the flip side of this sad news, I became a business consultant. Six months in, I was overwhelmed again by anxiety, stress, and mounting financial obligations. Things got ugly! So I turned to therapy and worked with a phenomenal therapist from 1998 to 2000.

Therapy helped me navigate change  and discover and celebrate my resiliency. It gave me back to myself and allowed me to choose a career path in nonprofit management that offered work-life balance, something I didn’t know I needed. It also gave me the courage to nurture my craft as an artist and writer while working with the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts at Howard University Hospital and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2001 to 2018. During this time period, I studied yoga and reiki and deepened my spirituality and practice of meditation and mindfulness in Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC’s People of Color Sangha, Unity of Washington, DC, and All Souls Unitarian Church. In short,  these experiences paved the way for how I live today. To learn more about my journey, I invite you to read my memoirs, That Which Awakens Me (2009) and Digital Sisterhood (2013).

Discovering Mindfulness

Mindfulness is our human birthright and practice. Each of us is born with the ability to be aware of what’s happening inside and outside of ourselves in the present moment. Mindfulness becomes a practice when we choose to pay attention to what’s happening in the present moment with loving kindness, compassion, nonjudgment, patience, and forgiveness.

I discovered mindfulness, self-care, and wellness when my career as a lawyer, an investment banker, and a digital communications professional stressed me out, caused burnout, and did not produce the level of success I expected. Mindfulness, self-care, and wellness helped me navigate change, become resilient, overcome panic attacks, and release my career expectations. As a result, I was able to pursue my calling as a Thriving Mindfully coach, an artist, an author, a Reiki master practitioner, a speaker, a trainer, a yoga +  mindfulness teacher, a sound healer, a digital wellness educator, a Human Design Doula, and an ordained interfaith reverend.

Thanks to the training I received at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts (artist-in-residence, 2001-2018), Flow Yoga Center (200-hour yoga teacher training, 2006), Reiki Lotus Healing Center (Reiki master certification, 2006-2008), the Engaged Mindfulness Institute (300-hour mindfulness teacher certification, 2018), Dante Baker’s sound healing training (2020), and the Digital Wellness Institute (40-hour digital wellness educator certification, 2020), I was able to launch and expand Ananda Leeke Consulting, a wellness company that specializes in personal and professional development, and the Thriving Mindfully Academy and Resource Network, an online education platform and membership site. In 2022, I became a legally ordained interfaith reverend with the Universal Life Church.

How I Use Mindfulness to Help People and Mission-Driven Companies, Organizations, and Communities

As the founder and Chief Mindfulness Officer of Ananda Leeke Consulting (ALC), I coach and train high achievers and mission-driven companies, organizations, and communities on how to navigate change, become resilient, and thrive mindfully. At ALC, I love creating and delivering trainings, tools, practices, and other resources in ways that are fun, practical, impactful, and accessible.

Currently, I lead the Thriving Mindfully Academy, an online learning platform and membership site. Also, I serve as a Human Design Doula and produce and host the Thriving Mindfully Podcast. I speak at conferences and events, facilitate trainings, and conduct coaching sessions for Amazon, Allied Media Project/ZEAL Press, Association of Wedding Professionals, AT&T, Automattic/WordPress, Big Bear Retreat Center, BlogHer, Body Connect Health Wellness, Community Associations Institute, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Eaton DC, Executive Women International, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Georgetown University Law Center, Howard University, Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, Institute for Medicaid Innovation, Keela, Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media, Marisla Foundation, Meetup/WeWork, National Association of Corporate Directors, National Collective for Health Equity, Nonprofit Technology Network, Sierra Club, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Sistas 4 Digital Equity, Sisterhued, Spelman College, The Conference Board, Unity of Washington, DC, Washington National Cathedral, Web of Change, Wonder Women Tech Summit, and World Wildlife Fund.

In 2018, I received Acquisition International’s Influential Businesswoman Award for the Most Caring Woman in Mindfulness Training and WeUpWomen’s Adelaide Smith Award for my work in self-care and wellness. In 2019, I was selected by lululemon to serve as a lululemon luminary, received Acquisition International’s Influential Businesswoman in Professional Development – USA Award, and was named a Well-Being Warrior by the Well-Being and Equity Bridging Network.

One last thing… Go to Amazon to check out and order my yoga-inspired novel, Love’s Troubadours, mindful creativity memoir, That Which Awakens Me, and mindful technology memoir, Digital Sisterhood. Currently, my father Dr. John F. Leeke and I are co-writing his memoir, Change Agent. I am also writing my third memoir, Thriving Mindfully as Theresa’s Daughter.

Ananda’s Fun Facts

• My 2024 intention and mantra: I surrender to the Oneness with faith and trust.
• My 2023 intention and mantra: I embody AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE, ABUNDANCE, EASE, GRACE, GRATITUDE, and JOY.
• A six word memoir that describes me: Abundant. Thriving Mindfully as Theresa’s daughter!
• 12 Lessons I Learned in 2020-24: 1) Slow down and surrender to the Oneness with faith and trust; 2) Have conversations with my heart; 3) Make rest and joy a priority; 4) Become a relaxed vegan; 5) Move my body with yoga, walking, Barre 3, and bike riding; 6) Manage my energy with astrology, chakra and crystal therapies, Human Design, and the moon cycles; 7) Get support through daily self-care, therapy, coaching spending time with family and friends, and participating in online meditation communities; 8) Create when I feel like it!; 9) Play my Soul Orchestra of sound healing bowls and instruments regularly; 10) Transform my relationship with tech and social media with digital wellness; 11) Death, loss, and grief are a master class in SURRENDER; and 12) My calling includes serving as an ancestral ambassador and a spiritual midwife to my mother Theresa as she made her transition to ancestorhood on July 9, 2023
• Puf the Magic Dragon is my childhood nickname that lives on as Puf, the Black American Princess (BAP) Extraordinaire.
• My 12 core values include spirituality, love, health, self-care, creativity, mindfulness, abundance, freedom, forgiveness, relationships, fun, and service.
• My favorite place in the world is my U Street, NW neighborhood in DC. I’ve been a U Street resident since 1990.
• I love giving back to my U Street neighborhood and building community through art, poetry, and meditation groups (since 1992).
• The Obama Administration recognized me as a thought leader in digital communications.
• I am a tree hugger who loves to collect rocks wherever I go in the world.
• I am a huge fan of Queen Sugar, This Is Us, Living Single, Girlfriends, Scandal, and anything Mara Brock Akil creates.
• Being a member of spiritual communities is an essential part of my mindful self-care practice. I am grateful to be a part of the Insight LA’s People of Color Practice Group, Rickie Byars’ B-Hood, and Agape International Spiritual Center.
• I use astrology, chakra and crystal therapies, the moon cycles , and Human Design to manage my energy.
• Pink and purple are still my favorite colors.
• My vegan leather pants, skirts, and dresses are some of my favorite things to wear.
• I started taking solo trips on airplanes when I was seven years old. Now I get giddy when I travel and get on planes, buses, and trains.
• Traveling to Senegal, Paris, Egypt, and China to celebrate my 30th birthday, Cuba to honor my 40th birthday, London to welcome my 50th birthday, Sedona, Arizona to kick off my 55th birthday celebration, and spending time Salvador da Bahia, Brazil during my 58th year were some of my adventures.
• Love Jones is my favorite movie.
• The music of Alice and John Coltrane rocked my world and is featured in my books, Love’s Troubadours and That Which Awakens Me.
• Meditation by way of an invitation to attend a free class at American University from two Buddhist women literally walked into my life while I was walking in my neighborhood with my Sigma Gamma Rho Soror Kamaria in 1992. We attended the class and received meditation tapes.
• Chanting African, Buddhist, and Sanskrit mantras keeps me balanced.
• In 1995, I took my first yoga class on a cruise down the Nile River in Egypt.
• Playing my crystal and Tibetan bowls is one of the best ways to chill out.
• Wearing wigs especially with blue hair, lipstick and lip gloss created by Black and Brown people, groovy socks, and crystal rings and bracelets helps me express my creativity in deeper ways!

Photo Credit

Leigh Mosley is an amazing photographer I have worked with since 2007.  Leigh is responsible for my official photos and book cover photos.