Mariam Cissé is the founder of Empower Moms, a platform dedicated to supporting and uplifting mothers and caregivers of children with special needs, the people who show up to every therapy session, every hospital visit, and every sleepless night, yet remain largely invisible to a society focused on the child's diagnosis and milestones. Her mission is simple and urgent: to turn the spotlight onto the mothers who have been forgotten.

Her path to this work was forged through deeply personal trials. Raised in Africa without her mother from age five to nearly nineteen, she knows firsthand the weight of feeling unseen and unsupported. Later, as a single mother of three navigating zero-hour contracts and financial hardship, and then as an educator working with children with special needs, she began to see the same exhaustion etched into the faces of mothers around her, a constant, quiet suffering that nobody talked about. She knew she had to do something. Despite being a self-described introvert who deeply values her privacy, a pivotal moment changed everything: a 19-year-old told her that her words had saved her life when she was on the verge of giving up. From that moment, Mariam made a decision, staying behind closed doors while countless people needed rescuing would be a selfish act.

Today, Mariam has built her mission while navigating homelessness, caring for a critically ill family member, and overcoming obstacles that would have stopped most people in their tracks, earning an Impact Award and a feature in Brainz Magazine along the way. But her greatest honor remains being a voice for the unheard and a light for those still fighting in the dark, proving that when you uplift a mother, you uplift an entire generation.