On Stage
Watch Patti speak.
From TEDx stages to leadership conversations, Patti brings audiences into powerful moments of reflection, honesty, laughter, and perspective shifts that change how people see themselves and others.
Lived Experience Speaker • Interactive Facilitator
When life changes and you don't know who you are anymore
A real conversation about identity after diagnosis, major life change, and finding your way forward when the life you expected is no longer the life you are living.
Start a Conversation →I'm not there to impress the room. I'm there to connect with it.
Featured In
- CBC Radio
- The Washington Times
- HealthCentral
- Authority Magazine
- AwareNow Media
Recognition
- TEDx Hawkesbury Speaker
- Speaker Slam Finalist
- Rise to Greater Heights Overall Award
About
Meet Patti Bevilacqua, PhD
I was diagnosed with MS at 23, five months into my first year as a high school Physical Education teacher. I thought the biggest thing I lost was my career. It wasn't. The biggest loss was not knowing who I was anymore.
Today, I share the lived experience of diagnosis, identity loss, major life change, and discovering that a different life can still be meaningful, purposeful, and yours.
A TEDx speaker, educator, bestselling author, and PhD, Patti blends lived experience, honesty, humor, and interactive facilitation to help audiences explore identity, change, and what it means to find your way forward when life doesn't go as planned.
Patti's sessions are interactive and conversational. She uses personal stories, reflection, think-pair-share, live polling, humour, and real conversation to engage the room rather than simply talk at it.
MS does not define ME. I do.
Two Signature Sessions
Signature Sessions
For healthcare, patient-experience, chronic illness, caregiver, and community audiences ready for an honest conversation.
01
When Life Changes and You Don't Know Who You Are Anymore
A conversation about identity after diagnosis and major life change.
A conversation about diagnosis, identity, grief, major life change, and what happens when the old version of you no longer fits. Participants explore how identity can be reclaimed, why the process is personal and messy, and how meaning and purpose can still be found in a life that looks different from the one originally planned.
02
NO Is Not the End of the Road
What happens when life says no — and where it can lead.
A conversation about what happens when life says no. Patti uses lived experience, story, humour, and reflection to explore how disappointment, diagnosis, and unexpected change can become a detour toward a life and identity you never expected.
Why Patti
Why organizations bring Patti in.
- 01
A fresh perspective on workplace culture and leadership
- 02
Real conversations about hidden pressures affecting performance
- 03
Practical insights leaders can apply immediately
- 04
Helps leaders recognize what people are carrying before performance suffers.
- 05
Humor, honesty, and authenticity without corporate jargon
- 06
A message that resonates across HR, healthcare, leadership, and education
- 07
Audiences leave with practical strategies to strengthen trust, communication, and workplace culture.
Recognition
A body of work that precedes the room.
Author
Two-Time Bestselling Author
MS Doesn't Define Me: The Biography of a Polymath.
Recognition
Rise to Greater Heights Overall Award
"Change Maker • Trailblazer • Visionary • Leader"
Stages & Audiences
Speaking experience includes.
- 01TEDx Hawkesbury
- 03Speaker Slam
- 05AwareNow Media
- 07Educational Organizations
- 02Rise to Greater Heights Conference
- 04CBC Radio
- 06Leadership & Professional Development Events
- 08Community & Workplace Culture Audiences
What Event Organizers Say
Patti offers a lived example of resilience that is authentic, credible, and deeply inspiring. Her message stays with people long after the event ends.
Booking
Bring a different perspective to your next event.
Available for conferences, leadership events, HR and healthcare organizations, workplace culture programs, and professional development sessions.
Patti speaks on leadership, hidden pressures, workplace culture, resilience, communication, and seeing differently in high-pressure environments.
Direct Contact
Patti Bevilacqua, PhD
Keynote Speaker | Leadership, Trust & Workplace Culture
[email protected]Book Patti →