Warning: This story talks about suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call, text or chat the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. You matter. You are important.

Cara Poland is an internationally respected mentor, teacher, physician, researcher and advocate for advancements in addiction medicine and associate professor in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology.

Her work and advocacy is changing the way healthcare professionals treat addiction and improving the systems behind the treatment.

In this moving TEDxMSU talk, Poland shares her unexpected path to becoming an addiction specialist, which was shaped by profound personal losses including the death of her mother to a rare disease and her brother to suicide.

These experiences ignited her passion for change, leading her to establish the MI CARES program to train healthcare professionals in treating addiction with empathy and kindness while also advocating for system change.

TEDxMSU is an annual student-organized event held at MSU’s Pasant Theatre. Poland’s talk was given on March 20, 2024.