Kelly Lyndgaard is the CEO and President of Unshattered and has been a leader and trailblazer for women throughout her lifetime.
In addition to her impact in the non-profit world, she spent 16 years in the IT industry building, running, and transforming technology organizations. In 2015, she stepped away from her executive career to focus solely on the social enterprise she founded named Unshattered.
Kelly is an engineer and physicist by training, but a problem solver and strategist at heart. Inspired by the strength and commitment of women doing the hard work of recovery, she wanted to help them build them a path forward to sustained sobriety and economic independence. Her heart was broken seeing relapses occur for those who had worked so hard to attain sobriety but had no safe place to return to after recovery.
Kelly is ignited by challenge – in any arena of life – and loves nothing more than seeing potential where others do not and bringing it to life. She’s on a mission to end relapse by providing job skills and employment for those who traditionally have difficulty finding employment.
Unshattered employs women in recovery to craft handbags and accessories out of repurposed materials such as retired military uniforms, sets from Broadway shows, manufacturing scrap and more. They have been awarded by the President of the United States for their creative and effective work in fighting the opioid crisis and were the 2018 Hudson Valley nonprofit of the year.
Unshattered boasts a 0% relapse rate for the women employed with the company.
Kelly and her husband live in Dutchess County, NY. She is a graduate of Taylor University and a Praxis Fellow. Outside of being an entrepreneur she loves reading, conquering challenges, and finding unexpected delight! On her days off you’ll find her curled up with a mug a tea, a stack of books, and her rescue dog, Bell.
You can find her on Instagram and Twitter and learn more about Unshattered at http://www.unshattered.org.
Today we talk about being a physicist and engineer, walking away from it to pursue her passion to help others, overcoming judgment, how choices aren’t character, how to grow a social enterprise, the strength of women, and the power in women helping women. You can purchase an Unshattered handbag from their website and even work with them on custom bags from repurposed materials that are near and dear to your heart. With your purchases AND your donations, they are able to help women coming out of recovery get back on their feet, find an apartment, and gain employment so that they can break the powerful cycle of addiction. Unshattered conservatively estimates that they save the state $103,000 a year in costs associated with addiction and incarceration for each woman they are able to help break the cycle. Become an ambassador of possibility by giving them your support!
Today’s show was engineered by Nick Panken of Freedom Highway on Radio Kingston.
Our show music is from Shana Falana !!!
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