uLead2025 - The Summit of Educational Leadership

Eliza Reid grew up just outside Ottawa (the daughter of a teacher) and met her Icelandic husband in graduate school in England. When she gave fate a push by contriving to win a date with him in a raffle, she never imagined that spontaneous decision would lead her to becoming First Lady of Iceland almost two decades later, after a whirlwind seven-week campaign on her husband’s first foray into public office.
Using Eliza’s experiences of navigating her public but unspecified role to upend expectations about first ladies and to use her platform to advocate for greater gender equality and other important issues, this keynote is about inspiring people to make the most of unexpected opportunities in order to be forces for positive change in the world. It’s for everyone who strives to write their own fairytale, and who wants to counteract identities and expectations others might impose on us.