Danielle Gehle

In 2018, I had the honor of giving the Keynote Speech at the Brain Injury Association of North Carolina's Family and Survivor Conference. The main focus of my speech was advocacy while trying to instill hope and the knowledge that we are not invisible, and never alone. As the audience was comprised of Survivors, Family Members, and Healthcare Professionals, my speech had three sections, one dedicated primarily to each group. I had worked with BIANC earlier in the year while making my short documentary film "Unmasked," which was part of my thesis project at Duke. I publicly premiered the film during this presentation.

In this presentation geared towards healthcare workers, I discussed the importance of not only meeting patients where they are, but also in helping them remember who they are and achieve their own goals. Patients are still people; they are not simply a list of symptoms or a disease or a diagnosis, and need to be treated as such.