Unlocking neurodivergent talent through curiosity and challenge

Book Kate

Example keynote topics

  • The invisible load: why neurodiversity inclusion fails without supporting parent carers

    Neurodiversity inclusion in the workplace often focuses on support for individual employees, but what happens when those employees are also parent carers of neurodivergent children? Kate highlights the invisible load this creates and explains how leaders can improve retention and performance by designing workplace systems with neurodivergent families in mind.

  • Hacking the system: becoming your neurodivergent child's fiercest advocate

    This powerful, experience-led keynote is for parents navigating education, healthcare, and local authority systems that were never designed with neurodivergent children in mind. Drawing on lived experience, Kate shares clear, practical strategies for advocating effectively, reducing friction with services, and securing the support children need to thrive. Parents will leave with realistic, actionable tools and renewed confidence to navigate complex systems while protecting both their child’s wellbeing and their own.

  • Unlocking neurodivergent talent through curiosity and challenge

    Why inclusion fails when systems are left to evolve organically, and how leaders can design workplaces that genuinely work for neurodivergent people and everyone.

  • From awareness to action: designing systems that empower neuroextraordinary talent

    Why focusing on individual resilience misses the point, and how systemic leadership unlocks sustainable performance by empowering neuroextraordinary talent to remove their masks and feel comfortable being their true selves at work.

  • Leading minds, not labels: the power of neuroinclusive leadership

    A deep dive into the business case behind switching to neuroinclusive leadership and what that looks like in reality.

Portrait of Kate Faxen wearing a t-shirt that says "girl's late diagnosis ADHD club, meetings held at some point". She has a short blond bob and wears hexagonal turquoise glasses. She's colouring a wheel of life coaching exercise.

Why book Kate?

Kate doesn’t speak about neurodiversity from a distance; she speaks from within it.

Her work is shaped by:

  • Lived experience as an ADHD professional and parent to neurodivergent children

  • First-hand insight into the SEND system and its impact on families and careers

  • Founding and co-chairing a parent and carer network within her organisation

  • ICF-accredited leadership coaching (ACC)

  • A growing body of writing and advocacy focused on equity, SEND reform, and the future of work

Kate brings curiosity without naivety, challenge without blame, and stories that land because they’re real. Audiences leave feeling seen, stretched, and equipped to act.

Recent engagements:

Neurodiversity at Work Conference, IGPP

Employee Engagement Conference

WHEN Annual Conference

Book Kate

Neuroextraordinary keynote speaker: Kate Faxen

Kate Faxen delivers keynotes grounded in lived experience, systemic thinking, and a deep understanding of the invisible load carried by parents and carers of neurodivergent children. A neurodiversity and SEND advocate, lived-experience expert, and neuroinclusive leadership coach, she challenges organisations to redesign systems so neurodivergent talent can thrive.

Through curiosity and challenge, Kate helps leaders move beyond awareness to build empathy, trust, and psychological safety. Drawing on her experience as an ADHD professional, a parent of neurodivergent children, and a former HR leader, she shows how well-intentioned policies can unintentionally create barriers and how we can all do better.

Her keynotes explore practical ways to shift mindsets, ask better questions, and build workplaces that work with people, not against them. Because inclusion isn’t about people fitting in, it’s about systems fitting people, and celebrating different ways of thinking.