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Healing Through Hope: Kathryn Goetzke’s Journey to Empower Communities and Save Lives
Kathryn Goetzke, CEO, and Chief Hope Officer, is the host of The Hope Matrix™ Podcast and through that avenue and coursework ensures all know how to write My Shine Hope Story™. The Shine Hope Company manages all youth, college, and city programming for Shine Hope™, Hopeful Minds®, Hopeful Cities®, and Hopeful Mindsets®, and supports the work of iFred to deliver activations to vulnerable populations and low and middle-income countries. The Shine Hope Company empowers individuals by teaching scientifically informed and evidence-based methods to cultivate hope through workplace activations, public health campaigns, educational resources, courses, training, keynotes, and consulting.
iFred, the International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression, is a 501(c)3 organization established in 2004 by Kathryn Goetzke. iFred works to shine a positive light on mental health and eliminate stigma through prevention, research, and education. iFred is a pioneer in teaching hope as a learnable skill and activates Hopeful Cities® in areas with a poverty rate of 20% or more, and the Hopeful Minds® Programs in school districts where at least 20 percent of the children they serve come from families with incomes below the poverty line. iFred also works in all low and middle-income countries
What is your personal/professional story?
When I was 18 years old, a freshman at the University of Iowa, I called home one day and was met with an unfamiliar, deep voice on the other end of the line. It wasn’t anyone I recognized, and when I asked for my mom, she got on the phone to tell me that my dad had taken his life. In that instant, my whole world crumbled, and I felt a sadness so deep that I thought I would never survive, accompanied by an unrelenting sense of helplessness that I could not bring him back.
Later, in my early 20s, I attempted suicide myself and struggled with eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and more. The doctors told me I had a high likelihood of dying by suicide, and I realized that current prevention methods weren’t going to help me. I realized that if I was going to save my own life, I needed to understand the root cause of suicide.
I started speaking with numerous researchers and reading countless studies, all of which pointed me to the single consistent predictor of suicide: hopelessness. I began to see that moments of hopelessness were normal and that it was crucial to manage these moments to prevent them from evolving into something more persistent. Determined to find a better way to manage hopelessness, I discovered hope science—researchers were measuring hope, but they weren’t teaching people “how” to hope.
To save my own life, I set aside my other company and dedicated myself to figuring out how to teach hope. I figured by learning how to hope, and teaching others, I would become more hopeful myself. Drawing on the business knowledge I learned from my dad, I launched The International Foundation for Research and Education on Depression (iFred). Through iFred, I tested my theory that hope was teachable, and I was thrilled to find my hypothesis was true.
With the help of an amazing team of advisors, I developed Hopeful Minds®, a course aimed at teaching youth the skills of how to hope. But my work to activate hope did not stop there. I went on to create The Shine Hope Company, developing more hope programming, such as Hopeful Mindsets®, that is specifically designed for colleges, workplaces, healthcare systems, and veterans.
I developed the Five Keys to Shine Hope framework, a now evidence-based formula for “how” we teach hope, including Stress Skills, Happiness Habits, Inspired Actions, Nourishing Networks, and Eliminating Challenges. Our recent research on the Hopeful Mindsets on the College Campus program, which uses this framework, showed significantly increased hope scores (Bryce et al., 2024). Additionally, research on our Hopeful Minds course found that children who took the course experienced improvements in anxiety, depression, resilience, positive emotion, confidence, self-belief, reduced negative emotion, emotional control, stoicism, social support seeking, self-care, and new coping skills (Kirby et al., 2021a; Kirby et al., 2021b).
I then created the Hopeful Cities Playbook, a guide for cities to activate hope community-wide. Currently, I am working to create a course that will be used by all healthcare professionals (i.e., nurses, psychologists, doctors, physician assistants, etc.) to cultivate hope within themselves, and how then to translate that to patients for better patient outcomes; I am also in the development stages of an app for teaching hope.
I believe hope is not just important on an individual level—it is crucial for our humanity. We cannot achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations without hope; it is key to our collective well-being. My global mission is ongoing, as I strive to normalize the conversation around hopelessness and ensure that everyone knows how to hope.
With over 57% of teen girls in the US reporting persistent hopelessness, we must create a global movement, an all-society approach for hope. We need it now more than ever.
What key moments in your life led you to where you are today?
Several key moments in my life have led me to where I am today. The first pivotal moment was the devastating loss of my father when I was just 18 years old, which sent me on a journey of deep sadness, hopelessness, and eventually, a quest to understand the root cause of suicide.
Another critical moment was meeting Dr. Myron Belfer, a renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Catalyst, who not only filled the need for a father-like figure but also provided me with invaluable mentorship. His guidance was instrumental in developing and showcasing my initial program, Hopeful Minds®, which was later recognized as an innovation by the World Bank. These experiences, along with the support of my dedicated advisors, have been fundamental in shaping my mission to teach hope and make a global impact.
Another key moment was the success of my first brand, Mood-lites, selling over 9 million light bulbs and creating the first nationwide cause marketing campaign for mental health. This led me to hope.
Lastly, working with my mayor at the time, Hillary Schieve, who challenged me to think about how we can teach a “whole city” how to hope. A challenge I am still working on and am “all in” on, which led me to create The Shine Hope Company.
Where does your passion to serve come from?
My passion to serve comes from a deeply personal place—my own experiences with loss, hopelessness, and the struggle to find a way forward. The pain I felt at watching my dad suffer, and not being able to save him, is nothing I can describe with words. I was a daddy’s girl, followed in his footsteps with business and retail, and would do anything to have him back. Yet since I can’t have him, I would do anything to prevent anyone else from experiencing that kind of pain.
I’m also incredibly curious, have a deep desire to not talk about problems but fix them, and believe suicide is preventable. I truly believe it is, and if my dad were alive today with what I know now, I could have helped him find his way. My journey has fueled my commitment to not only heal myself but also to help others by teaching the skills of hope so that no one else has to feel the despair and helplessness (two components of hopelessness), I, and my dad, did.
How can GlobalMindEd help you reach your goals?
GlobalMindEd has played a crucial role in helping me spread the message that hope is measurable and teachable. We need to activate campuses, educators, and students. We need cities to get on board to license our programs and help educate the community.
Hope is talked about in the abstract; we need to bring it to practical, tangible things people can do to increase it in their life. Hope is not a wish. Through GlobalMindEd’s extensive network of educators, leaders, and changemakers, GlobalMindEd can facilitate partnerships and collaborations that expand the reach of my programs, such as Hopeful Minds® and Hopeful Mindsets® on the college campus. Please get in touch if you want to activate your school, college, or community on how to hope.
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