Bipolar Book Club: Tales from a Storybook Recovery Kelly Rentzel TEDxSMUWomen

In a story of stories, Kelly Rentzel, single mother and general counsel of Texas Capital Bank, shares how authors Patty Duke, Kay Redfield Jamison, Carrie Fisher and Julie Hersh contributed to her successful recovery from bipolar I disorder. With humor and passion, it reveals how vulnerability can change a life. Kelly Rentzel is General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Texas Capital Bank in Dallas, Texas, where she began working in 2012 after ten years of practicing law, first at BigLaw and then in Federal Court. She also serves as vice president of the Southwest Association of Bank Counsel. In her free time, she plans future karaoke shows, writes poetry that her boyfriend/muse prays never gets published, and goes nowhere fast on her Peloton bike.

Kelly graduated cum laude from the Dedman School of Law, where she served on the SMU Law Review and played catcher for the championship LawDawgs softball team. She graduated with a double major with honors from Rice University. It was there that she deepened her love of Shakespeare, discovered her talent for The Macarena, and was first diagnosed with Bipolar I Disorder.

Kelly first spoke publicly about her mental illness in August 2017 during a Dallas Bar CLE. Since then, she has written several articles, launched a website (bipolaroz.com), and spoken to audiences from Austin to Omaha about successfully living with bipolar disorder. In recognition of her work, she received a Presidential Citation from the Dallas Bar Association in 2018 and was named a finalist in the 2018 Corporate Counsel Awards for “outstanding community service” by D CEO Magazine. His story has also been featured in the ABA Journal and Texas Lawbook.

Kelly recently completed a manuscript about his experiences, tentatively titled Crazyhorse. The book ends with a tribute to Kelly's biggest inspiration, her eight-year-old daughter Catie, who still thinks Mom is pretty boring. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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