Marianne Larned has dedicated her life to helping to build a better world. Over the years, she has served great leaders and worked with wonderful people across the country and around the world. Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Everyday Heroes honors many of those she has worked with, learned from and admired.

As the founding director of the Stone Soup Leadership Institute, Marianne inspires people and gives them tools to build healthier communities. She truly believes that somewhere on this planet, someone has a solution to each of the world's problems. Connecting people with new ideas and ways of doing things gives her great joy. She loves sharing inspiring stories and rekindling people's enthusiasm for making the world a better place. Using the Stone Soup metaphor, she helps people see that when we work together and pool our resources, we can do more with less and have more fun. She's like a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, spreading seeds of hope wherever she goes.

Marianne's commitment to helping others started early in her life. As the oldest of 10 children, she discovered the importance of the phrase: "each one, teach one." She discovered the joy of volunteering at the age of 12 when she helped someone from Boston's inner city learn to read and then as a teenager working with families in rural Appalachia. She received an award from Hamilton-Wenham High School for outstanding community service. Her international work began in the Philippines in 1987 working alongside Cory Aquino.
For the last four years, she had dedicated herself to working alongside the young people of Vieques, creating the Stone Soup Leadership Institute's global demonstration project.

Ms. Larned's undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Rudolph Steiner Center in Aberdeen, Scotland prepared her to work with children. Her graduate work at Boston University and California State University gave her the business and organizational development tools to assist corporations become more socially responsible.

For over twenty years Marianne has helped corporate, government, civic and community leaders develop public-private partnerships to build healthier communities. Clients have included Southwest General Health Center, the American Hospital Association, and The Healthcare Forum. She also assisted Business Week, the Interactive Video Industry Association, the San Diego and San Francisco Chambers of Commerce in developing public-private partnerships to improve the quality of education in our public schools. Working with the national consulting firm, Health Research Institute, she helped major corporations and health care coalitions in Massachusetts, Michigan and Oregon, contain their health care costs by providing employees with opportunities to improve their health. In partnership with the Philippine Foundation for Education and Economic Development, she helped develop strategic alliances between business, government, media and community leaders to support their nation rebuilding efforts.

For her pioneering and humanitarian work, Ms. Larned has been recognized as an Outstanding Young Woman of America and World Intellectual of 1993 and is listed in 2000 Notable American Women and the World Who's Who of Women.

An inspiring speaker, she has addressed business, civic, labor and professional associations, school districts, youth and community organizations, hospitals and corporations. Her speeches motivate volunteers, energize public-private partnerships and mobilize resources to build healthier communities.

Marianne's zest for life encourages people to overcome obstacles and follow their dreams. After learning how to overcome a life-threatening illness, she realized that if we can each heal ourselves, together we have the power to heal our planet.