Kate Doerge

Co-Founder & CEO, Penny's Flight Foundation

Kate Doerge

Co-Founder & CEO, Penny's Flight Foundation

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Biography

Kate Doerge is an authentic, personable, and dynamic speaker who inspires others to reach for joy, turn pain into purpose, and shine a light in powerful ways. After losing her father to heart failure, her mother to a car crash five days before Christmas, and her 16-year-old daughter Penny to neurofibromatosis, her life has been driven by the mission to help others face challenges and reimagine their choices and their path.

After losing her 16-year-old daughter Penny, Kate Doerge understood that it is not your lifespan that matters most, but your wingspan: how many lives you touch, and how you show up to help others. So, with Penny guiding her, she changed her own life to focus on how she can help others face challenges, big and small.

Doerge began by launching Penny’s Flight Foundation to find a cure and fund research for Neurofibromatosis, raising over $6 million, and inspiring young people to find beauty in imperfection and positivity in the face of challenge. Since its inception, there are over 100 Penny’s Flight clubs around the country.

Kate Doerge is also a coach, an upcoming author, and the founder of Reimagine, a platform helping others choose a different path through adversity. Her first book, Reimagining Grief, will be published by Hay House in June 2026. She speaks to corporations, healthcare organizations, schools, and nonprofits about how to reimagine life’s challenges, turn pain into purpose, and shine their light in powerful ways.

Kate refused to let tragedy take her or her family down, instead transforming it to build up her strength, family, and community. Kate used pain as fuel to tackle large challenges like incurable disease, lack of awareness, isolation, and grief. Kate proves and demonstrates what it takes to get into a powerful, not powerless, mindset and turn pain into purpose.

Kate has handled every challenge in her life, from the loss of her daughter to building a nonprofit powerhouse, by reimagining the standard approach. Her Reimagine Method helps others think differently about everything they face, from work challenges to life challenges.

Both corporations and individuals will benefit from Kate’s guidance on how to create a mission, connect more deeply with their audience, and make a lasting change both internally and externally.

Speaker Videos

Meet Kate Doerge

Today Show

It's not your lifespan, it's your wingspan

Speech Topics

Reimaging How to Move Through Grief

There is more than one way to move through loss. After the loss of her father to heart failure, her mother in a car crash 5 days before Christmas, and losing her 16-year-old daughter, Penny, to a brain tumor caused by neurofibromatosis (NF), Kate Doerge chose an untraditional path through grief. Instead of losing herself in the darkness of these devastating losses, Kate moved through her grief by taking unexpected actions that brought her into the light and allowed her to shine a light for others.

In this inspiring talk, Kate shares specific actions that we all can take to reimagine how we move through the experience that we all have to face–grief and loss.

Key Takeaways:

We all have a choice on how we play the cards we are dealt in life and how we face every kind of loss.
Healing starts with literally putting your feet on the ground–there is science behind the power of movement to process loss.
Research shows that through loss alone has a negative impact on your mental and physical health, while connection is profoundly healing
Kate shares unexpected yet completely accessible ways to process loss that will help anyone.

Launching a Purpose-Driven Brand

Successful nonprofit Founder and Brand Consultant Kate Doerge shares how to create a purpose-driven brand or nonprofit, or position a brand to have a mission at its core. By understanding your mission, you can connect with a larger audience and make an impact where it is needed most. So how do you start? How do you make an impact? Kate sets out a clear framework from idea to inception for how to impact others through your brand or nonprofit.

Key Takeaways:

You can reimagine any brand to include a mission at its core
Creating a relatable and inspiring mission needs to be at the heart of everything from brands to nonprofits
Branding and story are key elements in connecting your nonprofit or brand to a wider audience
Anyone at any age can make a difference. Kate shares how to start and expand.

Turning Pain Into Purpose

The pain that comes after adversity, tragedy, loss, illness, heartbreak, or trauma can be devastating and overwhelming, but there are ways to move forward in a way that strengthens, heals, and fuels you. Kate Doerge shares actions and mindset shifts that help people turn their darkest moments into something beautiful that can help others.

Key Takeaways:

You can grow through adversity
Putting your energy on others’ pain, instead of just your own is powerful for healing
Everyone has the ability to shine their light and spread their wings, even in the darkest moments

Supporting Your Mental Health Through Physical & Mental Fitness

Kate Doerge addresses the importance of building your physical fitness to support your mental fitness, particularly during times of crisis or challenge. Doerge compares mental health to a muscle that needs to be strengthened, nourished, and maintained on a daily basis through unexpected ways. She explores her own dedication to staying physically strong, which has led to her mental resilience and confidence during tough times.

Key Takeaways:

There is a clear link between physical strength and mental strength
Mental fitness is a daily practice
You can shift your mindset from “I don’t want to” to “I choose to”

Wingspan, Not Lifespan: Choosing How You Play the Cards You’re Dealt

Life doesn’t always deal us the hand we expect, but we always have a choice in how we play it. In this talk, Kate inspires students to see beyond circumstances, redefine resilience, and measure life not by its length, but by its wingspan, the reach and impact of their choices. Drawing from her own journey of unimaginable loss and transformation, Kate shares practical ways for young people to cultivate resilience, lean on connection, and turn challenges into opportunities for growth and leadership.

Key Takeaways:

How to reimagine setbacks as fuel for growth
The power of resilience and self-leadership during challenges
Why your wingspan, the impact you have on others, matters more than your lifespan

Wingspan Leadership: Helping Students Play the Cards They’re Dealt

As educators, you witness daily how students face challenges both seen and unseen. This talk reframes resilience through the “wingspan, not lifespan” lens, offering tools to help students turn adversity into growth. Drawing from her own lived experience and work with young people through Penny’s Flight Foundation, Kate shares how educators can model resilience, foster connection, and inspire students to measure success by the reach and impact of their choices—not by their circumstances.

Key Takeaways for Educators:

How to help students reimagine setbacks as opportunities for leadership and growth
Ways to foster resilience and self-leadership within the classroom community
Practical strategies to encourage students to expand their “wingspan” through empathy, service, and connection

Beyond the Filter: Reclaiming Beauty, Empowerment & Authenticity in the Age of Social Media

In a world where social media often dictates what’s “beautiful” and “worthy,” students are under immense pressure to conform. Kate empowers young audiences to shift the focus inward, toward confidence, purpose, and authentic self-expression. She explores how to “tend your wingspan” by choosing your circle wisely, protecting your energy, and embracing what makes you unique.

Key Takeaways:

Tools to redefine beauty and worth beyond comparison culture
How to find your “sunshine people” and protect your energy from negativity
Simple ways to cultivate internal empowerment and confidence in daily life

Beyond the Filter: Empowering Students in the Age of Social Media

Today’s students are growing up in a culture where likes and filters can define worth. This talk helps educators and school leaders understand the pressures students face and equips them with strategies to guide youth toward confidence, authenticity, and internal empowerment. Kate offers research-informed insights and actionable tools for fostering environments where students feel safe to embrace their uniqueness, choose their circles wisely, and protect their energy.

Key Takeaways for Educators:

How to identify and address the pressures of comparison culture in schools
Tools to help students cultivate authentic self-worth and internal empowerment
Ways to encourage students to find their “sunshine people” and create supportive peer networks