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Dr Jess Morgan is a TEDx speaker, former paediatrician and primary school teacher who brings together healthcare, education and wellbeing to challenge assumptions, question stigma and inspire people to see themselves and others with greater curiosity and compassion.
After more than a decade working as a doctor in the NHS, Jess made the unconventional decision to leave medicine and retrain as a primary school teacher. Her decision came after experiencing burnout and mental illness herself, giving her a deeply personal understanding of the impact that pressure, stigma and expectations can have on our wellbeing and sense of identity. Moving from the clinic to the classroom gave her a rare perspective on the pressures faced by children, families and the professionals who support them and transformed the way she thinks about people, behaviour and communication.
Today, Jess speaks to audiences across healthcare, education and beyond about the things that shape how we see ourselves and others: identity, vulnerability, stigma, mental health, neurodivergence, wellbeing and the power of changing our perspective.
Her talks combine personal storytelling, professional experience and evidence-based insight, but above all they create space for people to pause, reflect and connect with their own experiences. Jess has a gift for taking complex or difficult subjects and making them feel accessible, relatable and deeply human.
Whether she is speaking about leaving medicine, finding identity beyond a job title, supporting neurodivergent children, or creating environments where people feel safe enough to be themselves, Jess leaves audiences with a different way of looking at themselves, the people around them and the possibility of change.
Jess has spoken at national and international conferences and has been featured by organisations including the RCPCH, NHS Practitioner Health, BMJ and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.
Outside of work, Jess is mum to two daughters. She loves nothing more than a windy walk and a one-shot latte in a bookshop.
In this personal and thought-provoking keynote, Jess draws on her experience of changing careers, navigating adversity and juggling life as a working parent. She reflects on how easily we can become defined by the roles, responsibilities and labels that we carry. Jess explores the power of curiosity and compassion and offers strategies that leave the audience feeling empowered, uplifted and connected with what truly matters to them.
Though the conversation around wellbeing and mental health has evolved significantly, many people still experience the guilt, shame and sense of failure that can come with experiencing mental health difficulties.
Drawing on her own experiences of mental illness, alongside her work with children, families and professionals, Jess explores the impact of stigma and discrimination and the way it shapes what we choose to share about ourselves. She highlights why language matters and offers simple solutions to creating spaces where people can feel courageous enough to be themselves.
Jess leans into these difficult conversations in a way that leaves people feeling seen.
Drawing on her experience as both a paediatrician and primary school teacher, Jess explores what sits beneath children and young people’s behaviour. Merging evidence, real-life examples from the clinic and the classroom and lived experience, she challenges assumptions around “challenging behaviour” and offers practical strategies for responding with curiosity and compassion. This talk explores neurodivergence, trauma, poverty and mental health and equips the audience with the skills to move from trying to stop or ‘manage’ the behaviour to instead consider what it might be trying to tell them.
In this talk, Jess explores what it means to support neurodivergent children beyond labels, checklists and diagnostic criteria. Drawing on her experience in paediatrics and as a classroom teacher, she brings together science, real-world experience and personal stories to explore some of the challenges neurodivergent children and young people might experience and how adults can better support them.
This popular talk tackles a topic that is often overlooked: supporting neurodivergent young people during puberty. Drawing on scientific evidence alongside real-world experience from the classroom and clinical practice, Jess explores what is happening beneath the hormones and why this period can be particularly challenging for neurodivergent young people. She offers practical, compassionate strategies to help teachers and families understand, support and advocate for young people as they navigate this transition.
In this thought-provoking keynote, Jess challenges the culture of stoicism and self-sacrifice that runs deeply across healthcare. She explores how this narrative shapes professional identity and the consequences it can have on the mental health of healthcare workers. Drawing on her own experience of working in the NHS, Jess invites audiences to engage in conversations that are often left unspoken. She talks about the emotional burden of care-giving and highlights ways to create brave spaces where these conversations can happen.
Jess was a show-stopper, bringing utter, raw honesty mixed with genuine lived and living experience of mental ill-health to challenge her audience (which she held spell-bound for an hour) to reframe our cultural language in order to avoid stigmatization, to find genuine reflective space, and make real and lasting change.
Her unique perspective as a trained paediatrician, teacher and parent, combined with her wisdom, warmth and fantastic delivery has been so appreciated by all attendees.
