Dr. Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D.

Katie Rose Guest Pryal, J.D., Ph.D., is a lawyer and rhetorician—an expert in public discourse and how it influences policy—whose main focus is mental illness and neurodiversity and making the world more accessible to all people. She is also autistic and has bipolar disorder, and she writes and speaks about her experiences living with a neurodivergent mind. She is also an expert in gender-based violence and higher education.

She is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Life of the Mind Interrupted: Essays on Mental Health and Disability in Higher Education (2017); the INDIE-Gold-winner The Freelance Academic: Transform Your Creative Life and Career (2019); and the IPPY-Gold-winner Even If You’re Broken: Essays on Sexual Assault and #MeToo (2019). She is also the author of four novels and five legal textbooks. She writes frequently for national publications.

She is an Adjunct Professor Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law, where she spent 10 years as full-time faculty, and an Instructor in the Drexel University MFA in Fiction program. As a keynote speaker, she is represented by the BrightSight group. She also holds a position as Attorney of Counsel at Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP. Learn more about Dr. Pryal at katieroseguestpryal.com.