Disease of Addiction
Tracy Smith is the Founder of Speakers for Change. Tracy's vision to bring together the leaders, new thinkers, great story tellers and educators on these topics was born out of her own real life journey experiencing addiction in her family.
A former Sales Executive for American Express, Tracy was living an abundant life with her family in South Jersey before addiction hit her home. Tracy's beautiful daughter, Kayla started doing drugs at the young age of 13 and escalated to heroin by her freshman year of high school.
Kayla spent the next few years in and out of a variety of institutions, ultimately becoming homeless and living on the street before she sought help and achieved recovery. Tracy spent those very same years in chaos, depression, and ultimate frustration as she desperately tried to find the right solutions for her family through a maze of wrong information.
Tracy speaks now to help others better understand the disease of addiction and also to relay the details of what recovery can and does look like for an individual and for family members. She educates audiences and conveys a message of hope, in a day and time where many individuals and families have none. She likes to share her story with parents, community leaders and high school audiences.
After her tenure with American Express, Tracy decided to change her professional career permanently and dedicate her time to speaking and advocating for recovery supports. She opened Speakers for Change to offer some of the greatest thought leadership and speakers on addiction, prevention, recovery and advocacy in the United States.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjIW9zrCnlM
Website and links:
http://speakersforchange.org/about-our-philosophy/