Jill Bolte Taylor
Neuroanatomist, Stroke Survivor &; Author of My Stroke of Insight
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist who experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996. On the afternoon of this rare form of stroke (AVM), she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. It took eight years for Dr. Jill to completely recover all of her physical function and thinking ability. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey (published in 2008 by Viking Penguin).
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist whose research specialized in understanding how our brain creates our perception of reality. She was interested in this subject because she has a brother who is diagnosed with the brain disorder schizophrenia.
As irony would have it, in 1996 at the age of 37, Dr. Jill experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain. On the afternoon of this rare form of stroke (AVM), she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. It took eight years for Dr. Jill to completely rebuild her brain to recover all physical, emotional, and thinking abilities.
Dr. Jill is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey (published in 2008 by Viking Penguin), which is still often the #1 book about STROKE sold in the Amazon marketplace. In addition, her second book WHOLE BRAIN LIVING: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life was published in May of 2021 by Hay House and is now readily available.
In 2008, Dr. Jill gave a presentation about her experience with stroke at the TED Conference in Monterey, CA, which was the first TED talk to ever go viral through the internet. TED and Dr. Jill became world-famous instantaneously and that TED talk has now been viewed well over 27.5 million times. This 18-minute presentation catapulted Dr. Jill into the public eye, and within six weeks of presenting that TED talk, she was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, she was the premiere guest on Oprah’s Soul Series webcast, and her book My Stroke of Insight became a New York Times bestseller and remained on the list for 63 weeks.
Dr. Jill is passionate about educating the public about the beauty of our human brain, and she is committed to not only helping others find their way back from neurological trauma but is eager to help everyone better understand their brain so they can live their best life. Her Foundation Jill Bolte Taylor BRAINS is dedicated to providing educational services and promoting programs that are related to the advancement of brain awareness, appreciation, exploration, education, injury prevention, neurological recovery, and the value of movement on mental and physical health, as well as other activities that support this purpose.
Dr. Jill remains the National Spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Harvard Brain Bank), whereby she educates the public about the shortage of brain tissue donated for research into the severe mental illnesses. Since 1993, she has been an active member of NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness), by serving for three years on the National NAMI Board of Directions and later spent over ten years as the president of the local level NAMI Greater Bloomington Area affiliate in Bloomington, Indiana.
My Stroke of Insight
On December 10, 1996, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. Dr. Taylor now shares with audiences her inspiring journey to recovery based on her bestselling book, My Stroke of Insight. Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the TED conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Dr. Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.
How To Get Your Brain To Do What You Want It To Do
In this speech, Dr. Taylor focuses on how we can create a healthy environment for the cells making up our brain so they can exhibit optimal health and performance. She will share what she learned about the right and left minds after her stroke and how we all have much more control over what is going on between our ears than we ever imagined.
90 Seconds to Happiness
How we think is just as important as what we think; you have to know the brain to train the brain. With brains still developing and incredibly impressionable into our mid 20's, this talk focuses on understanding how the choices we make and the thoughts we think are influenced by the environment around us. Dr. Taylor shares how finding the intersection between logic and creativity will help you take charge of your thoughts and directly influence your level of happiness.
Compassion in Medicine
This keynote focuses on the paradigm shift which understands that neuroplasticity of the brain not only supports neurological recovery, but is our means for manifesting it. Medical professionals learn first hand what it was like for another medical professional to experience this level of illness and recovery, as well as what was needed and what interfered with neuronal recovery.