Standing Ovation & Encore — Arizona Workforce Summit 400+ workforce leaders, college presidents, and elected officials of Governor Hobbs's Workforce Arizona Council
"Frederick's story of overcoming substance abuse, mental illness, and homelessness to find hope and healing is one that needs to be heard by more people."
Healthy, productive lifestyles for all.
Frederick "Freddy" Shegog is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and policy advocate who reshapes how colleges, institutions, and policymakers understand addiction, mental illness, and the power of human potential. His work sits at the intersection of lived experience and policy.
A Message for Every Room
What will you leave behind? Freddy's signature keynote — delivered at colleges and universities from coast to coast — challenges students to stop sleepwalking through their potential and start building a life worth remembering. Grounded in his own journey from homelessness and addiction to academic excellence, this session ignites purpose, accountability, and the belief that it truly is not how you start — it's how you finish.
Every instructor, advisor, and administrator has shaped a student's future — often without knowing it. Freddy's powerful message for higher education professionals illuminates the profound, lasting impact that educators have on the students they serve, especially those arriving to campus carrying the weight of trauma, poverty, and adversity. This session renews passion, deepens empathy, and reminds your team why the work matters.
Freddy partners with corporate Employee Resource Groups and leadership teams — including CMI Media —bringing lived experience into the workplace. His message reframes mental health and human potential as business issues, not personal ones. Whether healthcare professionals carrying others' hardest seasons, or corporate teams facing burnout and retention, Freddy helps build cultures where support is a strength, not a liability.
Freddy works closely with event organizers to customize every keynote and workshop to the specific goals of your audience. Whether you're planning a student convocation, a behavioral health summit, or a statewide policy briefing — let's make your budget have the biggest impact in the lives of the people who need this message most.
This is the story of what happens when one stranger's act of kindness, a "village" — and one man's refusal to give up — changes everything.
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