Speaking with honesty and compassion, Dr. Michele Harper shares messages of health, equity, and social healing.
“True caring, indeed, true living, comes from being able to hold peace and love for oneself, and from sharing that unwavering, unconditional love, knowing that all life depends on this.”
—Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking
Michele Harper has worked as an emergency room physician for more than a decade at various institutions, including as chief resident at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx and in the emergency department at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Harvard University and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Dr. Harper has been a featured speaker for multiple institutions including at Yale University, the University of California San Diego, the University of Texas San Antonio, the Society of Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the American College of Surgeons, as well as Kaiser, Womanspace, T-Mobile, and Microsoft. She has also appeared as a commentator for MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and Cheddar networks, and on many popular podcasts. The Beauty in Breaking is her first book.
Dr. Michele Harper
New York Times Bestselling Author
Michele is listed with the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau
SPEAKING TOPICS
The Aftershocks of COVID 19: Healing the Healers
The height of the COVID 19 pandemic did not create but laid bare the deficiencies in the US healthcare system. In its wake is an increasingly disillusioned workforce. This talk is a look into the scope of the burnout, which is more insightfully described as moral injury. It is also a window into how providers can find their own healing in a broken system, and, should we collectively decide to do so, create a system that is nurturing instead.
“Brokenness can be a remarkable gift. If we allow it, it can expand our space to transform — this potential space that is slight, humble, and unassuming.”
—Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking
Racism: Our Most Crucial Public Health Crisis
As an emergency room physician, Dr. Michele Harper often experiences firsthand the repercussions of systemic racism and sexism in the medical field. Anti-Black and anti-woman policies and prejudices not only lead to disparities in care for already disadvantaged populations, but when the face of expertise is perceived as exclusively white and male, Black doctors and their patients suffer the consequences. Dr. Harper addresses the inequalities faced by health providers at the hands of patients, employers, licensing boards and more. She also explores the importance of dismantling bigotry on a personal level as well as a structural one, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing inequalities.
Dr. Harper can adapt this talk for both medical professionals and general audiences.
Black Butterfly Theorem:
From Childhood Trauma to a Transcendent, Healthful Self
In this talk based on her memoir, The Beauty in Breaking, Dr. Michele Harper candidly shares stories of resilience—not in order to romanticize trauma, but instead to honestly acknowledge life’s many challenges. She explores how facing hardship with integrity can lead to healing for ourselves and others—and ultimately create meaningful personal and social change.
“In the process of healing, we can become more resilient, stronger, and we can go on to help other people. To me, that is beautiful.”
—Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking
*Custom talks outside of the specific topics listed are also available. Please contact to discuss.
