Jill Bolte Taylor

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is one of those rare speakers who can keep listeners perched on the edge of their seats for over 90 minutes. She projects an amazing positive energy and is committed to educating everyone about the beauty and resiliency of the human brain. She speaks with the single intention of helping audience members walk away with a better understanding of what is going on inside their heads and how they can get their brains to do what they want them to do. She firmly believes that the most important relationship we each have is the relationship between our logical, rational, verbal left brain, and its counterpart – our creative, intuitive, thinking in pictures right hemisphere. Dr. Jill helps us understand how our two brains work together to create a single seamless perception of reality, and what is going on inside our heads when we experience personal conflict. As an “Advocate for Humanity,” Dr. Jill is a compassionate motivational speaker who speaks from her heart, both as a well sibling of a brother who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and as a neuroscientist who recovered from a debilitating stroke (AVM) which initially rendered her completely disabled. Dr. Jill has dedicated her career to the advancement of research into the human brain and neurological recovery from trauma. Her passion is to educate everyone about the fragile, yet resilient nature of this incredible organ. By sharing her science and her unique personal journey, she communicates a message of hope, education, and celebration in a way that people can truly understand, and they walk away not only moved but shifted in their perception of who they are in the world and what they are doing with their power.

TOPICS

My Stroke of Insight
This presentation focuses on Dr. Jill’s personal story: why she grew up to study the brain, her research activities, and her experience with brain disorder and recovery.

How to Get Your Brain To Do What You Want It To Do
How to create a healthy environment for the cells inside our heads and how to communicate with them for optimal health and performance.

Who’s Who Inside of You?
Dr. Jill talks about identifying the two very different personalities within each of our hemispheres with an intention of developing our ability to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.

How to Capitalize On Our Two Hemispheres
The talents and skills of each of our hemispheres and how to develop them.

Ninety Seconds to Happiness
Understanding how the choices we make and the thoughts we think directly influence our level of joy.

Compassion in Medicine
Health care and the different approaches and options for caregivers dealing with people in need.

In addition, Dr. Jill is happy to create an original topic in order to cater her presentation to an organization’s specific needs.

 

Full Biography

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a trained and published neuroanatomist. Her specialty was in the postmortem investigation of the human brain as it  relates  to  schizophrenia  and  the  severe mental  illnesses.  Because  she  has  a  brother who has been diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia, Dr. Taylor served for three years on the Board of Directors of the National NAMI organization  (National  Alliance  on  Mental Illness) between 1994-1997. Currently she serves as President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI in Bloomington, Indiana.

Because there is a long term shortage of brain tissue donated for postmortem research by individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, Dr. Taylor travels as the National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill for the  Harvard  Brain  Tissue  Resource  Center (Harvard Brain Bank) located at McLean Hospital. As the Singin’ Scientist, Dr. Taylor delivers this very popular keynote address titled “How To Get Your Brain To Do What You Want It To Do.”

But as irony would have it, on December 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arterio-venous malformation (AVM). Two and a half weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball size blood clot that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

It took eight years for Dr. Taylor to successfully rebuild her brain – from the inside out. In response to the swelling and trauma of the stroke, which placed pressure on her dominant left hemisphere, the functions of her right hemisphere blossomed. Among other things, she now creates  and  sells  unique  stained  glass brains  when  commissioned  to  do  so.  In addition, she published a book about her recovery from stroke and the insights she gained into the workings of her brain.  The New York Times bestselling memoir is titled My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.

In February 2008, Dr. Taylor gave a presentation at the prestigious TED Conference. A video of that presentation was posted on the TED website which was immediately viewed by millions of people around the world. The response to the video launched Dr. Taylor into becoming a highly sought-after public speaker. She was chosen by TIME  Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2008 and was the premiere guest on Oprah’s Soul Series webcast. In addition, she was interviewed by Oprah and Dr. Mehmet Oz on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Expertise:  Authors | Courage | Disability Issues | Inspiration | Motivation | Overcomers / Adversity