Kyra Phillips

Kyra Phillips started a school newspaper in fourth grade and landed her first interview with Dr. Seuss — yet the path from there to anchoring national news was anything but smooth. In this keynote, she walks audiences through the rejections, pivots, and high-stakes calls that defined her career, including the day a graduation speaker told her class to have a Plan B and she quietly refused. The session is part career chronicle, part practical playbook on resilience, ambition, and the discipline of betting on yourself when the safer option keeps showing up. Designed to inspire students, early-career professionals, and senior leaders alike.

Some stories don't come to you — you have to go and earn them. Kyra Phillips became the first female journalist to fly an F-14 in a combat training mission over the Persian Gulf, trained with SWAT teams across the country, and reported from the South Pole, all so she could file the kind of journalism nobody else had. In this talk she breaks down how she built access in rooms designed to keep her out, the negotiation tactics that turned 'no' into 'come along,' and the lessons her field reporting offers to leaders trying to break through their own walls.

From 9/11 and Iraq to Hurricane Katrina, the rise of ISIS, and decades of breaking-news anchoring, Kyra Phillips has covered some of the most consequential moments in modern American history. In this keynote she draws on those experiences to teach audiences how to stay clear-headed when the room is on fire — the mental habits, preparation routines, and team dynamics that let journalists, leaders, and executives keep performing when uncertainty is the only constant. A session built for crisis-response teams, executive leadership, and any audience operating at high tempo.