Kathryn Burgum
National Advocate | Speaker | Advisor
Reframing Addiction. Restoring Hope. Advancing Recovery.
For more than a decade, I have worked alongside policymakers, healthcare and treatment industry leaders, community organizations, and families to change how America understands and responds to addiction. My work is grounded in lived experience—personal and professional—and shaped by years of engagement at the state and national level. For eight years, as First Lady of North Dakota I focused on eliminating the stigma of addiction by sharing my story of addiction and recovery and encouraged others to do the same. I continue to encourage everyone to talk about how addiction has impacted their lives to help reduce the stigma so more people reach out for help and more lives can be saved. I have seen firsthand the consequences of the stigma around addiction and treating addiction as a moral failing or behavioral issue rather than what it is: a life-long, chronic, relapsing, treatable medical brain disease. When addiction is treated with the same seriousness, continuity of care, and accountability as other chronic illnesses and diseases, outcomes improve. Families stabilize. Communities strengthen. Lives are restored.
Why This Work Matters
America’s approach to addiction has been built on fragmentation rather than coherence.
Care is often crisis-driven instead of preventive. Responsibility is spread across disconnected systems. Policy has not kept pace with science, and stigma continues to shape decisions that should be driven by evidence.
The result is a system that too often fails the very people it is meant to serve:
Families are left navigating a confusing and inconsistent treatment landscape during moments of crisis.
Communities bear the cost through homelessness, crime, workforce loss, and generational instability.
Employers struggle with absenteeism, disability, and lost productivity.
Public dollars are spent downstream on emergency care, incarceration, and child welfare rather than effective treatment and sustained recovery.
This is not a failure of compassion or effort. It is a failure of alignment and design.
Press & Media
Conversations, Dialogue, Thought Leadership
I speak with think tanks, policymakers, healthcare leaders, employers, foundations, treatment industry experts, and community organizations across the country.
My engagements are grounded, data-informed, and shaped by lived experience—focused on what works, what doesn’t, and what must change to produce better outcomes.
Topics:
Why addiction should be treated like every other chronic disease
From episodic crisis care to chronic disease management
Policy and system barriers to effective care
Expanding treatment capacity and improving outcomes
Building recovery-ready communities and workforces
Leadership, resilience, and decision-making informed by experience
The role of public-private alignment in national recovery
Personal Perspective
This work is personal.
Like millions of Americans, my life has been shaped by addiction and recovery. I struggled with addiction for decades and have now been sober and in recovery for decades. That experience informs every conversation, every recommendation, and every commitment I make.
I believe recovery is possible at scale. I believe systems can change. And I believe leadership—steady, informed, and compassionate—can improve outcomes for individuals, families, and generations to come.
Connect
For speaking requests, advisory work, media inquiries, or other requests: