The Speakers

 

 

 

Keynote Speaker Tara Schuster,
Former VP of Talent and Development at Comedy Central

Best-Selling Author & Accomplished Entertainment Executive

“Ahead of her time...she sees the future a little bit.” –Oscar Winner Jordan Peele

Once best known as the Executive in Charge of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning show, Key & Peele, Tara Schuster turned her struggle with chronic anxiety and depression into a best-selling book and a mission to help others. 

Her humorous takes on taking charge of one’s mental health—always backed by empowering action steps—have won praise from readers ranging from Wharton professor Adam Grant to Academy Award-winner, Anjelica Huston and best-selling author, Glennon Doyle. InStyle, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Goodreads, Buzz Feed, Goop and many others have chosen her memoir as one of the best new books of 2020.

A veteran entertainment executive, Tara was behind such shows as the Emmy Award-winning @Midnight, Lights Out with David Spade, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the launch of Key & Peele to viral superstardom. By the time she was in her late twenties, Tara had taken her place in the male-dominated world of comedy as Vice President of Talent and Development at Comedy Central. By all appearances, she had mastered being a grown-up.

But beneath the veneer of success, she was a “chronically anxious, self-medicating mess” with a painful secret. No one knew that her “minimally parented” road to adulthood had been paved with depression, anxiety and shame. She finally realized that she’d hit rock bottom when she drunk-dialed her therapist.

Answering her own cry for help, Tara called upon the same talents she had used to launch hit television shows to begin a life-changing journey of self-healing and self-care. For five years, she researched how to both “be her own parent” and nurture her own wounded well-being—creating a 600-page Google Doc of her findings. She also developed a practice of simple, daily rituals that literally transformed her mind, body, relationships.

As an in-demand speaker, Tara has received invitations from the Fortune 100 and spoken to audiences ranging from Civic Nation to women’s and young professional groups. Bringing a winning combination of humor, vulnerability, and hard-won wisdom to the stage, she does more than inspire and motivate audiences to create lasting change in their lives. 

She provides easy- to-implement tools to take better care of one’s spirit, mental and physical health, and relationships—as both an individual and member of a workplace team.

 

 

Local Panelist
Dr. Karen Golombecki, Psy.D. 

Psychologist Karen Golombecki, Psy.D., L.P., joined the Behavioral Health Team of Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby in August 2023. Dr. Golombecki provides both individual and group therapy for patients who are dealing with chronic medical conditions, chronic pain and complicated medical issues.  She specializes in Rehabilitation Psychology and Health Psychology, supporting individuals in adjusting to difficult life changes in a manner of fact and down to earth manner. Utilizing Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy approaches, she is able to support patients in processing through stressors, managing role changes, and adjusting to a "new normal." Additionally, she works with patients on health behavior change goals, including weight loss and chronic pain management. She has a specialty in working with individuals with Intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairments.

Outside of her work, Dr. Golombecki enjoys volunteering as the Clinical Director for Strong Minds (a mental health screening program for Special Olympics of Minnesota), being a roller derby referee, teaching fitness classes, attending local music events (including going to her husband Ryan's band gigs), practicing her American Sign Language skills, and spending time with her husband on their land in Central Minnesota.   

 

 

Local Panelist
Kaitlin Daeges, Executive Director Livin Foundation

Kaitlin Daeges has been part of the LIVIN Foundation for 5+ years. Kaitlin brings more than 16 years of operational and contact center experience in startup companies and large corporations with a proven track record of significantly increasing profitability and shareholder value. 

Kaitlin has achieved these results by creating a strong leadership team and a vibrant corporate culture that improves efficiencies and enhances processes within organizations. 

After losing her father to suicide when she was 12, she has decided to turn her own personal tragedy into driving passion to give back and ultimately prevent suicide so that no other families have to experience what hers did. Her professional and personal experiences continue to drive the #LIVIN movement forward. 

 

 

Local Panelist
Dr. Kristy Lelcu, MD

Dr. Kristy Lelcu, a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician, was born in Atchison, Kansas and moved to Minnesota as a child. Her father was a miller for Pillsbury Flour in Minneapolis and her mom was a homemaker. She graduated from Park Center Senior High School with honors.

Dr. Lelcu graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a degree in Psychology. Following college, Dr. Lelcu worked in business at GE Capital and TransAmerica. A few years later, she felt a calling to work with people and returned to school to complete her pre-medical courses at the University of Missouri Kansas City. A graduate of St. James School of Medicine, Dr. Lelcu completed a Family Medicine residency in Pueblo, Colorado at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital Southern Colorado Family Medicine program. She participated in a medical mission to Ecuador and focused on preventing Childhood Obesity while in residency.

Following residency, she moved to the Brainerd Lakes Area and worked for Essentia Health. Dr. Lelcu participated in programs to help reduce opioid use in the community while at Essentia Health. She went on a medical mission to Romania, where she met her husband, Vlad Lelcu.  After 4 years, she transitioned to Urgent Care in St. Cloud with CentraCare. Dr. Lelcu found she missed the connection made with patients in clinic setting, so she opened a private medical practice, North Star Family Medicine, to offer the Brainerd Lakes Community a place to obtain medical care that focuses on the patients’ needs.

In her spare time, Dr. Lelcu enjoys traveling with her husband, riding motorcycles, reading, and spending time with her 4 pets – Judah, Daisy, Snowflake and Ser Pounce A Lot. She enjoys Red Dirt Country music and is a football fan. 

 

 

Local Panelist 

Yvette Campbell | Market President at Bremer Bank

Yvette Campbell has 32 years of banking experience with 30 years of that at Bremer.  Her current role is Market President for the Northern Minnesota area including the communities of Brainerd, Baxter and Aitkin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Phoenix.  Outside of work, she enjoys giving back to our great community by serving on several area non-profit boards and spending time with her family and two grandchildren.


 

 

Emcee
Tess Tayler, WJJY

Tess Taylor is originally from Duluth.  She went to college at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication. 

She started her radio career in the Duluth market in 1996.  Tess moved to the Twin Cities where she worked for the Minneapolis affiliate of Radio Disney for four years, taking a 3 month hiatus to live in Mexico, just because!  She left the Cities in 2004 after getting hired at WJJY in Brainerd to work beside Ken Thomas on the Morning Mess with Ken and Tess.  She also works middays on Today Best County, B93.3.  

She is the News Director and the Public Service Director for all 6 radio stations at Hubbard Radio Brainerd.  That is where she has been for the past 19+ years.  She lives in Breezy Point with her 11-year old daughter, Lola. 

Tess enjoys working (yes, even THAT early), volunteering with a number of lakes area non-profits (most passionately with the Alzheimer's Association), attending church functions, traveling to Duluth to see family, but mostly being a mom spending time hanging out with her daughter as the two try to navigate 5th grade math together! 

She's a proud member of the recovery community in the Brainerd area and encourages anyone who is struggling with an addiction of any type to reach out for help.  It is freeing…. It can change your life for the better – and you deserve to be happy.