Michael Fowlin
Psy.D
New Jersey, USAudiences laugh. Then think. Then change. Dr. Mykee Fowlin — Psy.D. psychologist, PBS performer & 3x TEDx speaker who has reached 2M+ people worldwide — gives teams frameworks to connect across difference and reminds us all: life is more fun out of the box.
Dr. Michael Fowlin — known on stage as Dr. Mykee — is one of the most distinctive voices in the world of keynote speaking, organizational wellness, and community building. He is the rare presenter who holds a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University AND has spent three decades as a professional performance artist — and he deploys both with equal mastery every time he takes the stage.
What separates Dr. Mykee from every other motivational speaker in the room is simple: he is not just inspiring — he is clinically grounded. With a specialty in group dynamics, team building, organizational cohesion, and psychological safety, his work is rooted in the science of how human beings actually connect, communicate, and function together. Audiences don’t just feel moved. They leave equipped.
The Career: 30 Years. 2 Million People. One Mission.
Over a 30-year career, Dr. Mykee has reached more than 2 million people worldwide — delivering keynotes, workshops, and immersive experiences at schools, universities, corporate retreats, nonprofit conferences, healthcare organizations, military installations, government agencies, and international venues across Scotland, Switzerland, England, and Peru. At his peak, he delivered 335 presentations in a single 10-month span.
He has served organizations including Deloitte & Touche, the Anti-Defamation League, Operation Smile, and major military and government agencies. He is a three-time TEDx speaker and was most recently featured as a performer and psychologist on PBS’s nationally broadcast Stories from the Stage in April 2026. He was selected to deliver a presidential substitute keynote on behalf of former President Bill Clinton, served as a residential leadership speaker for Village Camps international programs in Switzerland and England, and ran an 11-year tenure as keynote speaker and group leader for Anytown USA, a premier human relations and community leadership program.
He has delivered more than 250 all-staff presentations to school districts, corporations, and nonprofits — and more than 200 Wellness Day keynotes and workshops for global organizations. He has presented at 60+ conferences and schools specifically serving special needs populations, including schools for the visually impaired and the deaf and hard of hearing.
The Methodology: Temperature Stories
Dr. Mykee’s signature approach is what he calls “temperature stories” — a clinically informed, performance-driven methodology that helps audiences move beyond the labels, titles, and assumptions that divide us, toward the shared human experiences that connect us. He weaves together clinical psychology, live character performance, poetry, and storytelling into a single cohesive experience that audiences consistently describe as unlike anything they have ever seen.
His presentations are built on the principle that beneath our “handles” — our skin color, our titles, our politics, our credentials — lives a shared human temperature. And it is at that level where real connection, real leadership, and real change become possible.
The Frameworks: Tools That Stick
Dr. Mykee doesn’t deliver speeches. He delivers frameworks — memorable, practical mental models that audiences carry with them long after the event ends:
• The Japanese Teacup Philosophy: We are not our handles — our race, our title, our income, our politics. We are the temperature inside the cup. This framework transforms how teams relate across difference, building authentic connection and genuine belonging that goes far deeper than any policy or training manual.
• The Oyster and the Pearl: Resilience isn’t a trait you’re born with — it’s a verb you practice. Every setback carries within it the necessary friction to create something of profound value. This framework reframes adversity as the raw material of purpose.
• You Can’t Swallow and Breathe at the Same Time:A clinical insight with immediate workplace application — you cannot receive and resist at the same moment. This framework helps teams, leaders, and individuals identify when the weight of their workload is interfering with their capacity to grow, heal, and lead.
• The No Spoon Philosophy: Drawn from the film The Matrix, this leadership framework challenges teams to understand that growth doesn’t come from forcing the world to change — it comes from having the courage to bend our own perspective first.
• The River Stones: The vibrant colors of the people around us only emerge when someone takes the time to water the relationship. This framework reframes leadership and mentorship as an act of patient, intentional presence.
• The Oh, Snap! Principle: Wisdom lives in unexpected places — under a Snapple cap, in a child’s offhand remark, in the quiet dignity of someone the world has overlooked. This framework trains audiences to find insight in the unassuming moments that most people walk past.
The Audiences: Everyone from 10 to 5,000
Dr. Mykee has commanded audiences of over 5,000 people and served intimate groups of 10–20 with equal impact. His multimodal approach — part keynote, part performance art, part clinical workshop — adapts seamlessly across:
• Corporate Leadership Retreats & All-Staff Conferences: Helping mission-driven organizations build team cohesion, psychological safety, and authentic leadership culture.
• Human Connection & Community Summits: Moving organizations from surface-level awareness to genuine understanding through experiential performance and clinical frameworks that break down social barriers and build belonging.
• Wellness Conferences & Staff Appreciation Days:Delivering his “Seven Dimensions of a Resilient Life” model that goes far beyond diet and exercise to address emotional, social, spiritual, occupational, and environmental wellness.
• University Convocations & Student Affairs Programs: Connecting with young adults on identity, belonging, mental health, and purposeful leadership.
• Healthcare Organizations & First Responder Teams: Addressing burnout, resilience, and the emotional labor of caregiving professions.
• Special Needs & Alternative Education Conferences: Speaking from 25 years of deep experience with non-traditional learners and the educators who serve them.
• Government & Military Organizations:Delivering trauma-informed, high-impact leadership and resilience programming for high-stakes environments.
The Personal Story: Forged in the Same Fire
Dr. Mykee’s authority is not just academic — it is lived. As an advanced prostate cancer survivor, he understands the weight of a difficult diagnosis and the daily discipline of choosing hope. His “Pearl” philosophy — transforming the grit of personal adversity into something of lasting value — is not theoretical. It is autobiographical.
His life was also shaped by educators who saw him when he was invisible. In his sophomore year of high school, he was a teenager who had decided to disappear. An English teacher offered him a classroom, a conversation, and books — and because of her, he did not end his life at 16. That experience is the root of everything he does on stage: the belief that being truly seen is the most transformative gift one human being can offer another.
The Testimonials: What Audiences Remember
After one all-staff presentation, the principal of the school — a leader who had spent years pouring into everyone else — walked up to Dr. Mykee, turned her back to her staff, and wept. Not from sadness, but from the overwhelming relief of being seen. She thanked him for reminding her that she still mattered. That the reason she entered this field was still valid. Still worthy. Still enough.
A student in a wheelchair once silenced a room of mockers. Dr. Mykee had asked the audience: “If you had one superpower — either flying or being invisible — which would you choose and why?” The student replied: “I wish I could fly… because you don’t need a superpower to be invisible.”
A deaf student who communicated through an interpreter told him, as she wept: “You transcend language.”
These are not highlights from a speaker reel. They are the reason Dr. Mykee has never stopped.
The Bottom Line
There are speakers who can energize a room. There are speakers who can inspire an audience. There are very few who can walk into any room — a corporate boardroom, a school gymnasium, a military installation, a hospital staff lounge, or a library — and make every person in it feel, perhaps for the first time that day, truly known.
Dr. Mykee is one of them.
He is currently the co-founder and one of the lead facilitators of the Empathic Leadership Conference, a summer leadership program, and is at work on his forthcoming book, Unassuming: A Life Spent in Reflection. He is based in New Jersey and available for engagements nationwide and internationally.
SPEAKING TOPICS• Human Connection & Belonging
• Breaking Down Social Barriers
• Community Building & Bridging Difference
• Mental Health & Suicide Prevention
• Team Building & Group Cohesion
• Leadership & Organizational Culture
• Resilience & Overcoming Adversity
• Youth & Young Adult Wellness
• Communication & Empathy
• Identity & Self-Discovery
• Psychological Safety in the Workplace
• Wellness & Burnout Prevention
• Special Needs & Inclusive Education
AUDIENCE TYPES• Corporate & Nonprofit Organizations
• Mission-Driven Organizations & Social Enterprises
• Universities & Higher Education
• Healthcare Organizations
• Government & Military
• Conference & Summit Attendees
• Youth & Young Adult Programs
• First Responder Teams
• Staff Training & Development
• Special Needs & Alternative Education
PRESENTATION FORMATS• Keynote: 60–75 minute transformative performance keynote
• Half-Day Workshop: 3–4 hour deep-dive experience
• Full-Day Experience: Full day with partner facilitator
Fees available upon request. Contact booking manager for availability and pricing.
Dr. Michael Fowlin — known on stage as Dr. Mykee — is one of the most distinctive voices in the world of keynote speaking, organizational wellness, and community building. He is the rare presenter who holds a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University AND has spent three decades as a professional performance artist — and he deploys both with equal mastery every time he takes the stage.
What separates Dr. Mykee from every other motivational speaker in the room is simple: he is not just inspiring — he is clinically grounded. With a specialty in group dynamics, team building, organizational cohesion, and psychological safety, his work is rooted in the science of how human beings actually connect, communicate, and function together. Audiences don’t just feel moved. They leave equipped.
The Career: 30 Years. 2 Million People. One Mission.
Over a 30-year career, Dr. Mykee has reached more than 2 million people worldwide — delivering keynotes, workshops, and immersive experiences at schools, universities, corporate retreats, nonprofit conferences, healthcare organizations, military installations, government agencies, and international venues across Scotland, Switzerland, England, and Peru. At his peak, he delivered 335 presentations in a single 10-month span.
He has served organizations including Deloitte & Touche, the Anti-Defamation League, Operation Smile, and major military and government agencies. He is a three-time TEDx speaker and was most recently featured as a performer and psychologist on PBS’s nationally broadcast Stories from the Stage in April 2026. He was selected to deliver a presidential substitute keynote on behalf of former President Bill Clinton, served as a residential leadership speaker for Village Camps international programs in Switzerland and England, and ran an 11-year tenure as keynote speaker and group leader for Anytown USA, a premier human relations and community leadership program.
He has delivered more than 250 all-staff presentations to school districts, corporations, and nonprofits — and more than 200 Wellness Day keynotes and workshops for global organizations. He has presented at 60+ conferences and schools specifically serving special needs populations, including schools for the visually impaired and the deaf and hard of hearing.
The Methodology: Temperature Stories
Dr. Mykee’s signature approach is what he calls “temperature stories” — a clinically informed, performance-driven methodology that helps audiences move beyond the labels, titles, and assumptions that divide us, toward the shared human experiences that connect us. He weaves together clinical psychology, live character performance, poetry, and storytelling into a single cohesive experience that audiences consistently describe as unlike anything they have ever seen.
His presentations are built on the principle that beneath our “handles” — our skin color, our titles, our politics, our credentials — lives a shared human temperature. And it is at that level where real connection, real leadership, and real change become possible.
The Frameworks: Tools That Stick
Dr. Mykee doesn’t deliver speeches. He delivers frameworks — memorable, practical mental models that audiences carry with them long after the event ends:
• The Japanese Teacup Philosophy: We are not our handles — our race, our title, our income, our politics. We are the temperature inside the cup. This framework transforms how teams relate across difference, building authentic connection and genuine belonging that goes far deeper than any policy or training manual.
• The Oyster and the Pearl: Resilience isn’t a trait you’re born with — it’s a verb you practice. Every setback carries within it the necessary friction to create something of profound value. This framework reframes adversity as the raw material of purpose.
• You Can’t Swallow and Breathe at the Same Time:A clinical insight with immediate workplace application — you cannot receive and resist at the same moment. This framework helps teams, leaders, and individuals identify when the weight of their workload is interfering with their capacity to grow, heal, and lead.
• The No Spoon Philosophy: Drawn from the film The Matrix, this leadership framework challenges teams to understand that growth doesn’t come from forcing the world to change — it comes from having the courage to bend our own perspective first.
• The River Stones: The vibrant colors of the people around us only emerge when someone takes the time to water the relationship. This framework reframes leadership and mentorship as an act of patient, intentional presence.
• The Oh, Snap! Principle: Wisdom lives in unexpected places — under a Snapple cap, in a child’s offhand remark, in the quiet dignity of someone the world has overlooked. This framework trains audiences to find insight in the unassuming moments that most people walk past.
The Audiences: Everyone from 10 to 5,000
Dr. Mykee has commanded audiences of over 5,000 people and served intimate groups of 10–20 with equal impact. His multimodal approach — part keynote, part performance art, part clinical workshop — adapts seamlessly across:
• Corporate Leadership Retreats & All-Staff Conferences: Helping mission-driven organizations build team cohesion, psychological safety, and authentic leadership culture.
• Human Connection & Community Summits: Moving organizations from surface-level awareness to genuine understanding through experiential performance and clinical frameworks that break down social barriers and build belonging.
• Wellness Conferences & Staff Appreciation Days:Delivering his “Seven Dimensions of a Resilient Life” model that goes far beyond diet and exercise to address emotional, social, spiritual, occupational, and environmental wellness.
• University Convocations & Student Affairs Programs: Connecting with young adults on identity, belonging, mental health, and purposeful leadership.
• Healthcare Organizations & First Responder Teams: Addressing burnout, resilience, and the emotional labor of caregiving professions.
• Special Needs & Alternative Education Conferences: Speaking from 25 years of deep experience with non-traditional learners and the educators who serve them.
• Government & Military Organizations:Delivering trauma-informed, high-impact leadership and resilience programming for high-stakes environments.
The Personal Story: Forged in the Same Fire
Dr. Mykee’s authority is not just academic — it is lived. As an advanced prostate cancer survivor, he understands the weight of a difficult diagnosis and the daily discipline of choosing hope. His “Pearl” philosophy — transforming the grit of personal adversity into something of lasting value — is not theoretical. It is autobiographical.
His life was also shaped by educators who saw him when he was invisible. In his sophomore year of high school, he was a teenager who had decided to disappear. An English teacher offered him a classroom, a conversation, and books — and because of her, he did not end his life at 16. That experience is the root of everything he does on stage: the belief that being truly seen is the most transformative gift one human being can offer another.
The Testimonials: What Audiences Remember
After one all-staff presentation, the principal of the school — a leader who had spent years pouring into everyone else — walked up to Dr. Mykee, turned her back to her staff, and wept. Not from sadness, but from the overwhelming relief of being seen. She thanked him for reminding her that she still mattered. That the reason she entered this field was still valid. Still worthy. Still enough.
A student in a wheelchair once silenced a room of mockers. Dr. Mykee had asked the audience: “If you had one superpower — either flying or being invisible — which would you choose and why?” The student replied: “I wish I could fly… because you don’t need a superpower to be invisible.”
A deaf student who communicated through an interpreter told him, as she wept: “You transcend language.”
These are not highlights from a speaker reel. They are the reason Dr. Mykee has never stopped.
The Bottom Line
There are speakers who can energize a room. There are speakers who can inspire an audience. There are very few who can walk into any room — a corporate boardroom, a school gymnasium, a military installation, a hospital staff lounge, or a library — and make every person in it feel, perhaps for the first time that day, truly known.
Dr. Mykee is one of them.
He is currently the co-founder and one of the lead facilitators of the Empathic Leadership Conference, a summer leadership program, and is at work on his forthcoming book, Unassuming: A Life Spent in Reflection. He is based in New Jersey and available for engagements nationwide and internationally.
SPEAKING TOPICS• Human Connection & Belonging
• Breaking Down Social Barriers
• Community Building & Bridging Difference
• Mental Health & Suicide Prevention
• Team Building & Group Cohesion
• Leadership & Organizational Culture
• Resilience & Overcoming Adversity
• Youth & Young Adult Wellness
• Communication & Empathy
• Identity & Self-Discovery
• Psychological Safety in the Workplace
• Wellness & Burnout Prevention
• Special Needs & Inclusive Education
AUDIENCE TYPES• Corporate & Nonprofit Organizations
• Mission-Driven Organizations & Social Enterprises
• Universities & Higher Education
• Healthcare Organizations
• Government & Military
• Conference & Summit Attendees
• Youth & Young Adult Programs
• First Responder Teams
• Staff Training & Development
• Special Needs & Alternative Education
PRESENTATION FORMATS• Keynote: 60–75 minute transformative performance keynote
• Half-Day Workshop: 3–4 hour deep-dive experience
• Full-Day Experience: Full day with partner facilitator
Fees available upon request. Contact booking manager for availability and pricing.
You Don't Know Me Until You Know Me
Format: 60–90 minute Keynote (Can be adapted into a half-day workshop with a facilitated talk-back session.)
This program is perfect for:
- Teams facing "Empathy Fatigue": Organizations where staff feel reduced to their roles and are struggling with burnout or disconnection.
- Leaders in Transition: Communities navigating change who need a human-centered approach rather than a policy...
Beyond the 9 to 5: Rediscovering Your True Self
Format: 60–75 minute Keynote Performance (Can be adapted into a half-day workshop with facilitated reflection and audience sharing.)
This program is perfect for:
- Corporate all-staff conferences and professional development days where employees have been reduced to their job titles and need permission to be fully human again.
- Wellness conferences and community gatherings where the goal is connection,...
You Can't Swallow and Breathe at the Same Time: Metaphors and Stories to Navigate through Trauma
Format: 60-75 minutes keynote
This program is perfect for:
- Suicide prevention conferences and mental health summits where audiences need more than statistics—they need a new way of understanding the moment when survival feels impossible.
- Trauma-informed care professionals and caregiving teams who carry the weight of others' pain daily and need both clinical insight and personal...
Empathic Leadership Conference (ELC)
Format: Half-day to 3-day workshop experience (Co-facilitated with Dennis Morolda, Founder of Building Men)
This program is perfect for:
- High school sophomores, juniors, and seniors navigating self-doubt, distraction, and the pressure to define what leadership means for their generation.
- Schools, youth organizations, and community programs looking for a research-based, hands-on leadership experience that...
