“Life in the Sandwich: How to Care for Children, Aging Parents, and You!”

Managing children and a career has its challenges. Add aging parents to the mix, and life really gets interesting. Caregiving will disrupt our lives and careers, unless we learn to disrupt it first. In this session, O’Donnell, founder of Working Daughter, will share strategies for balancing multiple competing priorities: career, kids, parents, and self. Attendees will walk away with actionable and practical tools for prioritizing life’s responsibilities, goal-setting at work and at home, finding joy in their current situation, and banishing any guilt. O’Donnell also will share her own experience of caring for two ill parents while building a business and raising children.

Liz O’Donnell is the founder of Working Daughter, an online community for women balancing eldercare, children, career, and more. An award-winning writer, she published her second book, Working Daughter: A Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents While Earning a Living, in 2019, and it was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal. Her first book, Mogul, Mom, & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman, looked at the impact of women’s personal lives on their careers.

A former family caregiver, O’Donnell is a recognized expert on working while caregiving and has written on the topic for many outlets, including The Atlantic, Forbes, Time, and PBS’ Next Avenue. She has delivered keynote speeches on the topic to audiences at Harvard University, the Marketing to Moms Conference, the Women Leading Government Conference, and more. 

A longtime marketing executive and working mother, she also is active in her community and committed to supporting other women. O’Donnell co-founded SheStarts, an organization for female entrepreneurs, and Women in Democracy-Dedham, a nonpartisan group in Massachusetts that seeks to engage more women in local politics.

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