Book Lauren as a Speaker

A speaker who has actually lived the pivot.

Lauren Fine, MD is a TEDx speaker, physician, medical educator, and decision coach. She speaks on career reinvention, ikigai, decision-making under uncertainty, and the courage it takes to write a different story. Audiences leave with frameworks, not just inspiration.

TEDx Speaker MD, FAAAAI Harvard Macy Faculty Assistant Dean, NSU KPCAM ICF Coaching Training

Signature talks

Five talks Lauren can deliver tomorrow.

Signature keynote

30 to 45 minutes · Keynote, conference plenary

Permission to Change

The talk Lauren delivered at TEDx New River. A look at why so many high-achieving people stay in the wrong story for years longer than they need to, and what it actually takes to give yourself permission to write a different one. Drawn from her own pivot from clinical medicine.

Audience takeaways

  • The difference between a permission problem and a motivation problem
  • How to recognize a "should" disguised as a "want"
  • A practical framework for surfacing the decision you've already made

Decision-making

45 minutes to 90 minutes · Keynote or workshop

Holding the Pen: Decision-Making at an Inflection Point

Most professionals don't fail at decisions because they lack information. They fail because they don't know which information to weight. This talk gives audiences a structured framework for high-stakes career and life decisions, including the 10/10/10 regret test, values-feasibility-identity mapping, and how to move when the path is unclear.

Audience takeaways

  • A four-quadrant framework for clarifying any major decision
  • The 10/10/10 test for distinguishing reversible from irreversible
  • How to act before certainty arrives, without acting recklessly

Ikigai keynote

30 to 60 minutes · Keynote, leadership offsite

Beyond the Venn Diagram: What Ikigai Actually Is

The four-circle ikigai diagram you've seen on LinkedIn is a 2010s marketing invention. The actual Okinawan concept is older, deeper, and far more useful for navigating midlife and mid-career inflection points. This talk separates the imported version from the original, then shows the audience how to apply ikigai to a current decision.

Audience takeaways

  • What Western ikigai gets wrong, and why it matters
  • How ikigai works when applied to a real career or life question
  • Why "small ikigai" beats "one true purpose"

Women in medicine

30 to 60 minutes · Conference, women's leadership panel

The Confidence Myth: A Different Conversation for Women at Inflection Points

The "confidence gap" is the wrong frame. Women at inflection points are not under-confident. They are navigating a systemic double-bind that tells them to be ambitious, but only in masculine-coded ways, and only on someone else's terms. This talk reframes the conversation around self-authored rules, decision permission, and what it actually looks like to lead from your own definition.

Audience takeaways

  • Why the confidence-gap narrative misdiagnoses the problem
  • Three masculine-coded expectations to interrogate
  • Building a decision rule that is yours, not borrowed

Medical education

45 to 75 minutes · Faculty development, grand rounds, conference

Teaching Reasoning, Not Recall: What Clinical Education Misses

Medical training optimizes for pattern recognition and recall. The result is graduates who pass exams but struggle when the case doesn't match the textbook. This talk draws on Lauren's work building clinical reasoning curricula and educational technology to argue that reasoning is teachable, assessable, and currently underweighted in formal training. Audiences leave with concrete tools they can apply in their own teaching.

Audience takeaways

  • Why pattern-recall pedagogy is reaching its ceiling
  • Eight reasoning frameworks worth teaching explicitly
  • How to assess clinical reasoning, not just clinical knowledge

Audiences

Who books Lauren.

Lauren speaks at conferences, leadership offsites, women's events, medical schools, and corporate development days. Her work resonates most with audiences in transition, whether by choice or circumstance.

Healthcare and medical education

Conferences for physicians, medical educators, residents, and health professions students. Topics range from clinical reasoning to physician career reinvention to the difference between a calling and a contract.

Women's leadership and women in STEM

Conferences, panels, and events focused on women navigating mid-career inflection points. Lauren speaks to the structural realities, not just the personal-development version.

Corporate offsites and ERGs

Leadership development programs, employee resource group events, and team offsites for organizations whose people are facing change, growth, or restructuring.

Selected prior engagements

Where Lauren has spoken.

Public speaking

  • TEDx New River (2026) — "Permission to Change"
  • Coach U Scholarship Recipient Spotlight (2026)
  • Substack: Permission to Change: Finding Your Ikigai

International conferences

  • SIAAIC / WAO, Milan, Italy
  • International Conference on Communication in Healthcare, Ottawa, Canada
  • IAMSE, Calgary, Canada
  • TUFH (Towards Unity for Health), Philadelphia

National conferences and academies

  • American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI)
  • Academy for Professionalism in Healthcare
  • USC Innovations in Medical Education
  • SGEA (Southern Group on Educational Affairs)

Faculty and workshop facilitation

  • Harvard Macy Institute Educators Course (invited facilitator)
  • AAAAI Workshop Series Faculty Leader
  • NSU MD RISE Conference

For event organizers

Copy-and-paste bios.

Short bio approx. 50 words

Lauren Fine, MD, FAAAAI is a TEDx speaker, physician, medical educator, and decision and transition coach. A board-certified allergist and immunologist, she still sees patients one day a week. She is Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical Skills Education at Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine and faculty at the Harvard Macy Institute. She writes the Substack Permission to Change: Finding Your Ikigai.

Medium bio approx. 110 words

Lauren Fine, MD, FAAAAI is a TEDx speaker, physician, and decision coach who helps high-achieving professionals navigate career reinvention. A board-certified allergist and immunologist, she still sees patients one day a week. She is Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical Skills Education at Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine, faculty at the Harvard Macy Institute, founder of an AI-powered clinical reasoning education platform, and author of the Substack Permission to Change: Finding Your Ikigai. Her TEDx talk, "Permission to Change," explores what it actually takes to give yourself permission to write a different story.

Long bio approx. 200 words

Lauren Fine, MD, FAAAAI is a TEDx speaker, physician, medical educator, and decision and transition coach. She helps high-achieving professionals at every inflection point clarify their story, navigate major decisions, and build the narrative for what comes next.

Lauren is a board-certified allergist and immunologist who continues to see patients one day a week. Alongside her clinical work, she serves as Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Clinical Skills Education at Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine and is faculty at the Harvard Macy Institute. She founded ReasonDx, an AI-powered clinical reasoning education platform. She holds editorial board appointments at the Journal of Asthma and the Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, and serves on the USMLE Test Material Development Committee at the NBME and the question writing committee for the American Board of Allergy and Immunology.

She has published in Academic Medicine, Diagnosis, Medical Science Educator, the Journal of Clinical Hypertension, and the New England Journal of Medicine. She has presented at conferences across the United States, Italy, and Canada. In January 2026, she delivered "Permission to Change" at TEDx New River. She writes the Substack Permission to Change: Finding Your Ikigai and is currently completing ICF coach training.

Ready to bring Lauren to your stage?

Speaker fees vary by format, audience, and travel. Lauren takes a small number of speaking engagements each quarter to allow proper preparation for each one. Reach out with the basics and she'll respond within two business days.

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