Kathryn Childers
Speaker, Author, & Women’s History Trailblazer
CMG Speaks presents Kathryn Childers
Kathryn Childers
Speaker, Author, & Women’s History Trailblazer
"Do it scared!"
- Kathryn Childers
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About Kathryn Childers
Kathryn Childers, one of the first five female U.S. Secret Service special agents, inspires with her extraordinary journey in a male-dominated field. Known as the “pistol packin’ nanny” to the Kennedy children, she protected world leaders and worked undercover. A dynamic force of reinvention, Kathryn has also thrived as a broadcast journalist, award-winning advocate, and best-selling author. With her mantra, “do it scared,” she empowers audiences to embrace courage and take bold steps toward success. Her captivating blend of real-life adventures and practical wisdom makes her an unforgettable speaker for anyone ready to redefine possibility.
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Kathryn Childers’ decision to just “do it scared” led to her an appointment as one of the first five female Special Agents in the United States Secret Service. After smashing that glass ceiling, she protected the President, First Family, foreign heads of state as well as John and Caroline Kennedy while traveling the globe with Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Even Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis noted, “Agent Clark (Childers), you live such an interesting life.” A master of reinvention, Kathryn went on to become a broadcast journalist, award-winning community advocate, author and publisher, as well as wife and mother. Through it all, Kathryn not only entertaining audiences with her astonishing and fascinating history, but motivates, engages, and inspires audiences to real action. She shares the secret of her success coaching all ages to grasp her life-long mantra – “do it scared!” – and make it their own. Kathryn brings the perfect balance of a one-of-a-kind experience blended with story-telling charm taking audiences on a jaw-dropping ride-along sharing anecdotes of training and protecting some the world’s most important people
Kathryn coaches students to “sell their sizzle” by weaving nuggets of advice garnered during her 60 exciting years and four amazing careers into this presentation. She shows how to leverage one’s “backpack of experience,” nail an interview, and be interested versus interesting with on-stage interviews. Kathryn also shows students tactics to get them and their resumes off the shelf and noticed, and discusses the importance of developing a short elevator speech which includes offering three things no one would believe about themselves.
As a U.S. Secret Service Agent, broadcast journalist, author, philanthropist, publisher, wife and mother, Kathryn Childers adjusted both her career track and personal life many, many times over. Although accustomed to change, her husband’s dementia and sudden retirement from a thriving psychiatric practice threw this “reinvention veteran” a curve ball. When retirement presented unexpected challenges, Kathryn quickly learned that aging gracefully was not her only option! While others migrated to the bridge table, she started her own publishing company then authored, produced and published a trio of books about a fluke Texas snowstorm selling more than 100,000 copies. She and her husband have criss-crossed America pulling their Airstream trailer. And, yes … she drives and can back it up, and she’s not finished yet … yareckon?
After being appointed as one of the first five female United States Secret Service Agents, Kathryn put together a patchwork of unbelievable careers including life as a broadcast journalist and host of her own local television show for 18 years. Kathryn shares interviews with the likes of Lucille Ball, Ellen DeGeneres, James Earl Jones and Dolly Parton, and behind-the-scenes stories from the newsroom. Linda Ellerbee said, “You know you are in local TV when you ride the elephant at the circus” … and Kathryn did it … several times! Her humorous reflections of the zany world of live TV coupled with story telling charm reveal why most people are scared to appear on the small screen … and probably should be!
Kathryn Childers shattered gender barriers as one of the first five female United States Secret Service Agents hired in 1971. Feeling like “a mouse in the pocket of history” during tumultuous times, she shares stories of protecting President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and the Queen of Spain. Kathryn takes you undercover into the world of criminal investigation and counterfeiting. She prepared for the unexpected while training alongside men - often times the only woman – and learned to protect, serve and make life-altering, split-second decisions. Kathryn was also assigned to protect some of the world’s most important children – Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr. Dubbed the “pistol-packin’ nanny,” Kathryn’s unofficial directive was to “keep them alive, keep them safe, keep them happy and keep them from embarrassing the President of the United States or their mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.” Her personal anecdotes of protecting the youngsters while traveling with them and their mother to Greece, Austria, Hyannis Port, Washington D.C and New York City are both entertaining and heart warming. Kathryn takes you on her remarkable and unlikely journey how a young woman with an elementary education degree from Colorado landed at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue!
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