TEDx Boulder
What we lose when we undertreat pain, September 17, 2017

My Bio

Kate Nicholson is a nonprofit founder and executive, and a writer and speaker, who formerly worked as a civil rights and disability rights attorney.

Kate is the founder and executive director of the National Pain Advocacy Center, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that advocates for the health and human rights of people in pain.

She previously served as an attorney and manager in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and is a nationally-recognized expert on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Kate co-founded and serves on the board of the Denver arts non-profit, Tilt West, and she serves on boards and task forces of other arts, disability rights, and public health organizations.

Kate frequently writes and speaks about the equitable treatment of pain in the context of crises involving opioids and COVID-19. She is writing a memoir about her own twenty-year journey to healing after a surgical injury left her in severe pain, unable to sit or stand, extremely limited in walking, and for many years, bedridden.

Kate also writes and speaks about social justice, social healing, and arts and culture. She was a Senior Fellow at Dartmouth College and is a graduate of Harvard Law School.