Maya Chia

THE
FOUNDER

Maya Chia is a clean beauty line founded by Susanne Norwitz, an escapee of the corporate fast track and an unabashed dreamer/believer in pursuing your passions. In her case, this meant creating the highest quality skincare product and giving back in the process. Her career began as a political speechwriter. Susanne went on to earn a master’s degree at Harvard University.

After school, she oversaw the external communications and social media outreach activities for Dunkin’ Brands and Kellogg Company and its subsidiaries, including Kashi. She has since acted as a senior communications advisor, and wrote speeches for C-suite executives at Fortune 100 companies, including Revlon and Walgreens.

Maya Chia Beauty was launched in December of 2014 when Susanne left her corporate career to pursue her passion. Susanne was always keenly interested in the act of skin care rituals, and how little acts of self care can profoundly transform the way one feels about themselves. She also had a lifelong interest in the Maya people that started with her father, who was a surgeon, and traveled to Guatemala to perform cleft lip and palate repair surgery on the Maya.

As she casually happened across the mention of chia, she realized that it was an unmatched nutritional powerhouse with proven skincare benefits – and also happened to be a staple of the Maya people for thousands of years. In fact, in the Mayan language “chia” is the word for “strength”.

Susanne’s interest in learning more about the Mayan culture increased with the addition of her two stepchildren who were both born in Guatemala, an area rich in Maya heritage. When she learned chia was a staple for the Maya, and held untold skin benefits, Maya Chia was born.