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You Were Built To Rise!
Some speakers fill a time slot.
Kathleen Boyle Wrigley transforms it into an unforgettable experience.
Kathleen is a keynote speaker, licensed clinical social worker, school counselor, educator, and author who partners with organizations and communities navigating change, adversity, and the unexpected.
From schools and nonprofits to corporate teams and community organizations,
Kathleen brings powerful storytelling, professional insight, humor, and hard-earned perspective to the room — reminding audiences that hardship may shape the story, but it never gets the final word.
What begins as an unforgettable keynote becomes something bigger: a room full of people ready to respond, reconnect, and rise.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Pediatric Therapist
School Counselor and Educator
Keynote Speaker and Author
More Than 30 Years of Clinical Experience
Advocate for Children Families and Stronger Communities
Meet Kathleen
A Professional Perspective Shaped by Real Life
Kathleen has spent decades working alongside children, families, educators, and communities as they navigate difficult circumstances, manage change, and move forward with strength, perspective, and hope.
Her understanding of resilience was never learned from textbooks alone. Growing up amid frequent moves, food insecurity, and addiction in her family, Kathleen’s older brother Danny was her constant, her best friend, and her safe place. At just 20, she lost him when Officer Danny Boyle was killed in the line of duty.
Life would ask Kathleen to rebuild more than once. She later survived three brain surgeries and a stroke, then at 55 faced public betrayal and divorce.
Through Built to Rise, Kathleen shares what comes after the unexpected: finding your footing, moving forward with purpose, and refusing to let one difficult chapter define your whole story. Grounded in professional expertise, faith, and lived experience, her message resonates in classrooms, workplaces, boardrooms, and communities.
Professional depth
Kathleen draws from decades of work as a licensed clinical social worker, pediatric therapist, school counselor, educator, and advocate for children and families.
A life that tested the message
Her understanding of resilience was built through childhood instability, profound grief, trauma, public loss, divorce, and the difficult work of beginning again.
A room that can breathe
Kathleen tells the truth without making the room unbearably heavy. She brings humor, tears, warmth, and the kind of honesty that helps people lower their guard and recognize themselves in the story.
Something useful to carry home
Audiences leave with language for what they have experienced, practical ways to support children and families, and a clearer sense of the next step available to them.
A speedbump is not a stop sign.
A fall is not the finish line.
You are not only what happened to you.
You are the comeback.
Speaker & Advocate
Kathleen brings real-world experience and professional expertise to audiences who are navigating change, supporting others, and choosing to rise through life's challenges.
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Education
Businesses & Nonprofits
Families & Caregivers
faith
communities
Schools and districts building emotionally healthy learning environments for students and staff
Companies, nonprofits, associations, and professional groups investing in resilient people, healthy cultures, and thriving teams.
Parents and caregivers seeking encouragement, practical tools, and hope for life's challenging seasons.
Churches and faith-based organizations exploring the intersection of resilience, purpose, and hope.
Different Settings... A shared Purpose
Building the courage, connection and the capacity to rise.
Built to Rise
Keynotes
Kathleen's presentations are warm, honest, and deeply human. She does not stand onstage pretending to have life figured out. She stands there as a therapist, counselor, educator, mom, sister, survivor, and woman who has learned that getting back up rarely looks polished.
Her audiences laugh. Sometimes they cry. Most importantly, they feel understood and leave knowing what they can do next.
Built to Rise: When Your Only Choice Is to Rise and Rebuild
Built around the unforgettable story of Kathleen falling at mile one of the Fargo Marathon, this message uses humor and hard truth to explore the difference between being knocked down and deciding that the fall gets the final word.
Kathleen's Signature Keynotes
Kathleen's signature keynote for audiences facing loss, change, illness, disappointment, or an unexpected new beginning. It helps people honor what happened without surrendering the rest of their story to it.
Speedbumps &
Comebacks
A practical conversation for parents and professionals about anxiety, social media, gaming, attention, sleep, relationships, and protecting childhood in a world that rarely powers down.
Raising Resilient Kids in a Digital World
Building Solution-Based Youth
Professional insight and compassionate guidance for adults supporting children through grief, trauma, anxiety, change, and emotional overwhelm.
Grace, Grit & the Work of Rebuilding
A faith-centered message for people walking through loss, transition, or a season that has asked far more of them than they expected.
Built to Rise: When Your Only Choice Is to Rise and Rebuild
Some chapters are chosen. Others are handed to us. Kathleen shares the experiences that taught her how grief, love, faith, humor, and resilience can occupy the same story.
Meet the woman behind
built to rise
In the video below,
Hear why Kathleen speaks,
what shaped the Built to Rise message,
and what audiences can expect when she steps onstage.
Her stories are deeply personal,
but the hope inside them belongs
to everyone who has ever had to
find a way forward.
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A Message Built for the People in Your Room
01
Start with the Audience
Kathleen takes time to understand who will be in the room, what they have been carrying, and what your event needs to accomplish.
02
Shape the Message
She selects the stories, clinical insight, humor, and practical takeaways that will best serve that audience without losing the heart of Built to Rise.
03
Give them something to carry forward
The goal is a message that stays useful after the applause. Kathleen wants people to leave with renewed hope, clearer language, and one next step they can take.
“
“While tragedy may shape us, it does not define us. Grace does.”
Sarah Jenkins, School Counselor
What Audiences Are Saying
Verified testimonials from clients and organizations.
“
“Kathleen’s message of resilience is more than inspirational—it is practical wisdom for our community.”
David Miller, District Superintendent
“
“A powerful blend of clinical expertise and personal strength that truly moves hearts and inspires action.”
Elena Rodriguez, Parent & Advocate
Kathleen's Children's Books
Helping the Next Generation Learn They Are Built to Rise
Kathleen’s children’s books carry the Built to Rise message into the hands and hearts of young readers.
Officer Danny and the Kindness Patrol was inspired by Kathleen's brother, Philadelphia Police Officer Danny Boyle, who was killed in the line of duty. Through a story filled with courage, kindness, and connection, his memory continues to remind children that heroes are also the people who notice, help, include, and care.
Bring Built to Rise
to Your Community
Kathleen brings Built to Rise to corporations, schools, nonprofits, families, and communities navigating change, challenge, growth, and transition.
Through powerful storytelling, professional insight, and practical strategies, she creates experiences that connect with people across roles and generations. Whether she is speaking to leaders, educators, employees, parents, students, or community groups, Kathleen meets audiences where they are and gives them tools to move forward with greater courage, connection, and hope.
Her message is simple but powerful: hardship may shape the story, but it does not have to define what comes next.
Together, we can build the capacity to rise — stronger, more connected, and ready for what’s next.
Proudly Partnering With
North Dakota Literacy
Association
Central Regional
Education Association
Shiloh Christian School
OakGrove
Lutheran School
Mayor's Prayer Breakfast
Sunshine Foundation
Bank Of North Dakota
ND Governor's Prayer Breakfast
Officer Daniel Boyle
Scholarship Fund
Legacy Children's
Foundation
City Of Bismarck
Police