Untaught strength: The drive to do the impossible | Dr. Cathryn Litvack Dhanatya | TEDxInglewood
What does it take to do the impossible? For Cathryn Dhanatya, it began with 75 days of labor and a choice rooted in love, courage, and faith.In this deeply personal and powerful talk, Cathryn shares how surviving a life-threatening pregnancy revealed an inner strength that no textbook, career milestone, or title could have prepared her for. She calls it untaught strength the instinctive, biological drive within all of us to endure, adapt, and overcome.Through humor, honesty, and heart, Cathryn invites us to reclaim this untaught strength. Her story is a testament to what happens when belief meets resilience and when love becomes the force that carries us through the unthinkable.Watch to be reminded that the power to endure isn’t something we learn it’s something we remember. Dr. Cathryn Litvack Dhanatya is Co-founder and President/CEO of Growing Good Inc., a professional services firm that partners with non-profit organizations and companies who aim to do good in the world. Through her work with Growing Good, she has advised and developed funding, leadership, and operational management strategies for dozens of some of the world’s largest cutting-edge scientific and social science research organizations, leading nonprofits, global NGOs, technology start-ups and companies in the fields of medical research, green technologies, education, the arts, and civic engagement.
Cathryn has previously held key C-suite executive positions, board director, and advisory positions for organizations in research, higher education, and across the non-profit sector tackling and providing solutions to complex social issues for healthcare; disease prevention and treatment; education, social, economic, gender, health disparities and inequities; microfinance; development of sustainable and green technology; preservation of the arts; civic engagement; and global food insecurity. She has taught and worked at world class higher education tier-one research institutions. Throughout her career she has helped to raise, manage, and provided grants totaling close to a billion dollars for scientific and social science research and to support various social impact causes. She has also lived and worked on five continents; earned her Ph.D. in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA; and has led and conducted research on media and technology as it relates to health issues, disease burden, prevention, and stigma reduction around the globe.
She has been a keynote speaker at several international and domestic conferences, universities, corporate and public events, training, and featured in numerous media outlets and publications addressing the issues of non-profit leadership, fundraising, the future of philanthropy, generational shifts in giving and spending, health equity, inclusive leadership, women executives in the workplace, redefining success, and work life balance as a professional and mother. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
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