Dr. Keith Bellizzi PhD MPH. Resilience Coach, Author of Falling Forward: The New Science of Resilience and Personal Transformation

I am pleased to introduce you to Dr. Keith Bellizzi PhD MPH, a professor, internationally recognized researcher, and four-time cancer survivor. His work is focused on resilience, illness adjustment, and trauma.

For over twenty years, Keith has studied how individuals and families adapt to serious health challenges.

Dr. Bellizzi has contributed to national resilience initiatives, collaborated with leading scholars, and frequently speaks about resilience and mental health, translating research into accessible, real-world insights.

In Falling Forward, Dr. Bellizzi dismantles the popular myth that resilience means toughness, grit, or a return to “normal.” Instead, he promotes something far more unsettling and far more powerful. True resilience is forged in vulnerability in the very experiences we work hardest to avoid.

Drawing on his personal journey and more than two decades of groundbreaking research, Dr. Bellizzi reframes resilience as learning to live meaningfully with what cannot be fixed, reversed, or undone. Illness. Loss. Disruption. The moments that change everything.

Written for both general readers and professionals, Falling Forward blends intimate storytelling with evidence-based insight to challenge assumptions about strength. The book offers practical, actionable strategies for cultivating resilience through adaptability, meaning-making, and courageous vulnerability — revealing that vulnerability is not the opposite of strength, but where it begins.

Amid rising burnout, chronic stress and anxiety, and many conversations about mental health, loneliness, and self-care, there is recognition that grit alone is not enough, and may be part of the problem. Falling Forward offers an evidence-based re-definition of resilience that is sustainable, human, and grounded in vulnerability rather than toughness.

Inspiring Ideas
Why “bouncing back” is a myth, and how it actually keeps people stuck
Vulnerability isn’t weakness; the counter-intuitive science behind real resilience
What ‘pop culture’ gets wrong about resilience, and what decades of research reveal instead

How breaking down psychological armor creates strength that lasts
The power of pausing: why reflection, solitude, and stillness drive true transformation

In Keith’s own words …
I’ve lived resilience, studied it, and now write about it.

I was first diagnosed with cancer in my early twenties and, since then, I have faced it three additional times — most recently in 2021. Those experiences taught me that resilience isn’t about ‘bouncing back’ or returning to the life you once had. It’s about learning how to inhabit the life you have now.

As a Professor of Gerontology at the University of Connecticut, with a joint appointment in the Center for Public Health and Health Policy, I study resilience, cancer survivorship, social drivers of health, and healthy aging. My research has produced over 100 publications and helped to shape programs nationally and internationally.

My book, Falling Forward, brings these two worlds together. It blends two decades of research — my own and that of others in the field — with lived experience to provide practical insight for clinicians, educators, survivors, and anyone navigating life when the expected path changes.

I have been fortunate that my work has reached audiences through ABC News, The Washington Post, CNN, NPR, and more. I also speak publicly about resilience, survivorship, and translating science into practice — and I welcome connections with individuals and organizations seeking to make this research accessible and meaningful.

Learn more about Falling Forward, resilience coaching, and speaking at www.keithbellizzi.com.

The book is available on Amazon. And read the reader reviews …. WOW!