Jenna Kedy

Jenna Kedy

Jenna Kedy (she/her) is a 21-year-old glitter-loving, mic-dropping, youth-empowering changemaker from Halifax, Nova Scotia and she’s not here to blend in. Diagnosed with a rare form juvenile idiopathic arthritis at 11, Jenna learned early on how to advocate for herself in rooms where no one looked like her, sounded like her, or believed someone so young could be the expert on her own body. Now, she’s working on building a public speaking career out of proving them wrong with a smile, a clipboard, and sometimes sparkly sneakers.

Jenna is a internationally recognized disability and chronic illness advocate, bringing her lived experience into conversations that shape policy, research, and systems that impact youth, patients, and disabled people across Canada. She’s a proud patient partner and youth engagement nerd, working with organizations like the Canadian Medical Association, Take a Pain Check, TrueFaces, and the IWK.

When she’s not presenting at conferences, reviewing research papers, co-creating toolkits, or facilitating inclusive programs at  her day job as a assistant director support professional, you can catch her leading her Girl Guide unit, helping organize community fundraisers, and/or writing powerful poems on what it means to grow up disabled in a world that still doesn’t always believe you. She’s clocked more than 1000 volunteer hours in the past 1.5 years and somehow still finds time to plan glitter tattoo stations, host recruitment events, and coordinate inclusive youth activities that bring joy and belonging to everyone involved. If you ask her what drives her, she’ll tell you it’s community care, lived experience leadership, and the belief that no one should have to fight alone.

Jenna is also a seasoned public speaker with a stage presence that’s equal parts TED Talk, girlboss energy, and cozy coffee shop chat. Her signature talks include “Lived Experience Is the Secret Sauce”  a fun and fiery celebration of patient partnership, youth power, and why sauce is the perfect metaphor for what happens when we let real people lead real change; “Healing Isn’t Linear, But I Am Disabled” is a raw, vulnerable story of identity, grief, resilience, and embracing the disabled label with pride even when it felt scary; and “We’re Not Just Ticking a Box” is a rallying cry for youth engagement that is authentic, inclusive, and actually meaningful. Other favourites include “Volunteering with Purpose (and a Heating Pad)” and “Dear Healthcare: We’re Not Just Case Numbers,” both blending lived experience with policy insight, humour, and heart.

From hospital waiting rooms to high-level boardrooms, Jenna shows up as her full, fabulous self and invites others to do the same. She’s passionate about making systems better with the people they serve, not just for them. She’s on a mission to make healthcare and youth engagement more accessible, joyful, and human and she’s doing it all while embracing the beauty of rest, rage, rhinestones, and radical inclusion.

So, if you’re looking for a speaker who can hold a room, spark a movement, and leave people laughing, crying, and rethinking everything they thought they knew about “patient voice” Jenna Kedy is your girl and she brought the glitter.