BARBIE RAY
Barbie Ray is a humorous, inspirational, motivational keynote speaker, resilience expert, empowerment coach, health, wellness, and caregiver advocate with a profound history of overcoming personal and professional challenges. Surviving life-threatening situations and severe personal adversities, including a battle with paralysis and opioid addiction, bullying, and abuse, she has emerged as a symbol of strength and determination.
Using all these experiences, her company, Empower with Barbie (www.empowerwithbarbie.com), strives to improve lives and strengthen relationships individually or on a global platform.
Barbie Ray, a graduate of Chicago's The Second City Training Center, has honed her improv and musical comedy talents. These skills, now integrated into her impactful speeches, inspire individuals and organizations to unlock their highest potential.
Ranging from a radio personality, voice-over talent, model, and vocalist to entrepreneur, Barbie brings unique insights to her talks. In 2008, Barbie purchased a nonstandard auto body shop with her partner. Over the next fifteen years, they retooled, achieved the I-CAR Gold Class, and became certified by numerous manufacturers (including Subaru, Alfa Romeo, Ford, and GM, to name a few—becoming one of the most certified shops in Illinois). By 2022, Genesis and Alfa Romeo informed them that their collision repair facility was in the top 10 percent of all shops nationwide.
In December of 2023, Barbie was invited to share the longest winter season of her life at a SPEAK event aptly themed Seasons, where she shared her harrowing experience with paralysis, spinal surgeries, and opioid addiction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4vSxdxRvGU&ab_channel=SPEAK
In May 2024, Barbie spoke in two panels for the Los Angeles Tribune Leadership Week—reaching over a million views and growing—unveiling The Women’s Journal Inaugural Edition for the Los Angeles Tribune. Barbie’s article will appear in that first edition.
Barbie continues to serve others, teaching that the only barriers in life are the ones we place above and in front of ourselves.