Jill Bolte Taylor Keynote Speaker

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a trained and published neuroanatomist. Her speciality was in the postmortem investigation of the human brain as it relates to schizophrenia and the severe mental illnesses. Dr. Taylor served for three years on the Board of Directors of National NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) between 1994-97. Currently she serves as President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI in Bloomington, Indiana.

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. 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 best-selling memoir is titled My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey (Viking Penguin, 2008)

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 for 2008.

Dr. Taylor now serves as the CEO of My Stroke of Insight, Inc. She is working on the creation of a serious game for health for neurological recovery.  Her book “My Stroke of Insight“(2009) became a New York Times best seller.