While in graduate school, Karyn Buxman combined her research with the one thing that enabled her to get through an entire day without losing her sanity: humor. The result became her master's thesis: "The Development and Implementation of a Humor Room in a Hospital Setting." Now an internationally recognized expert on humor, she puts her studies to work by delivering energy-charged keynotes that entertain, motivate and educate audiences nationwide. Buxman realizes that helping businesses, healthcare institutions and associations discover effective solutions to achieving performance recuperation, maintaining healthy work environments and adding balance to work life issues is no joke-but it can be a laughing matter!

Recently bestowed the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), she's an internationally acclaimed expert and humorist who recognizes the operational benefits of humor and laughter. Buxman's highly regarded skills as an entrepreneur and professional speaker help her deliver outcome-oriented messages that move ideas and people forward. Just ask the folks at NASA, Johnson & Johnson and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, to name a few.

Buxman's ability to both articulate and entertain have led to her appearances on national television programs such as Iyanla, numerous regional television appearances in conjunction with her speaking tours, and as a frequent radio guest on local, regional and nationally syndicated programs. It's also why she's quoted again and again not only in professional journals, such as the American Journal of Nursing and Nursing Spectrum, but in lay magazines such as Marie Claire, Shape, and Woman's World. American Airline magazine, AmericanWay, included her humor tips for their business article, "Job One: Relax," and recently Frontier Airlines featured an entire article, "The Good Humor Lady," about Buxman in their monthly magazine. She's also recognized online for her expertise on sites such as ABCnews.com and Monster.com.

Buxman's impact is felt globally through her involvement with the International Society of Humor Studies (ISHS). In 1999, she helped co-found The World Laughter Tour, an organization striving for world peace through laughter. Their creed: "Together we can lead the world to health, happiness and peace through laughter."

Buxman holds a distinguished position in the world of speaking. She has earned the National Speakers Association's (NSA) Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, and is one of only 166 experts (26 women) in the world awarded admission into the NSA Speaker Hall of Fame (CPAE). Speaking approximately 40 times a year to audiences ranging in size from 75 to 7,500, both her attendees and her peers see her as one of the very best in the speaking profession.

Her fellow nurses sang her praises when awarding her the Missouri Nurse of the Year, 9th District, and recently her Alma Matter, University of Missouri, honored her by designating her as one of the distinguished 2003 Faculty Alumni Award winners. The Mayor of Muskogee, OK designated her as an official "Okee from Muskogee," and in 1999, the Governor of Kentucky bestowed upon her the elite title of Kentucky Colonel! Most recently, Buxman was honored by the American Association for Applied & Therapeutic Humor with their most prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Being the 2004 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award signifies that Buxman has demonstrated an extraordinary impact on the field of therapeutic humor throughout her career via her speaking, writing, research and professional practice, as well as contributing to AATH's mission.

Buxman is President and founder of HUMORx, a humor-based management and communications company. Since 1991, HUMORx has provided remedies to organizations seeking simple, workable ideas to their human performance problems. Through her years of research and experience, she's determined that humor and its powerful consequences (physiological, psychological, social and spiritual) offer benefits in the work place that can be the catalyst for change that will move groups forward and allow individuals to live more positive, productive and happier lives. Buxman is serious about humor!

She has appeared in journals such as Woman's Day, Shape, Marie Claire as well as AJN, AACN Clinical Issues and Journal of Psychosocial Nursing. She's also a contributing author for Chicken Soup for the Nurses Soul and was a co-founder of The Journal of Nursing Jocularity, (the only humor magazine ever published for healthcare professionals). Karyn is the prescription for success at your next meeting.

• Amazed & Amused: How to Survive & Thrive as a Healthcare Professional - Success is not measured only in dollars and cents, but also in the moments that you live amazed and amused. Balance is achieved not by see-sawing between opposites, but by accepting your place in the scheme of things, and by seeing it all as amazing and/or amusing. Surviving without thriving is not good enough, and we can only do our best when we self-create an attitude of amazement, and a perspective that encourages amusement. Bestselling author, RN, and observer of the human condition Karyn Buxman will take you on a life-changing, one-hour journey of humor and hope.
  
  
• This Won't Hurt a Bit...and Other Fractured Truths in Healthcare - Sicker patients, irritable docs, cranky coworkers, days that are long on hours and short on resources. It's obvious that the state of health care today is no joke-but it just may be a laughing matter, if we understand that humor is frequently generated by painful circumstances. Karyn understands that those who can't learn to laugh in the midst of this highly stressful profession usually leave it. In a hysterically entertaining keynote, Karyn connects with fellow healthcare workers to help them get through the toughest of days and still remain smiling. A great opening or closing keynote.
  
  
• From Burned Out to Fired Up: A Nurse's Survival Guide - Expanding responsibilities, shrinking budgets, obstinate docs, cranky coworkers, family demands, Joint Commission, HIPPA, too much to do and not enough time to do it! Is it any wonder that we're feeling burned out? Find out how being an advocate for yourself can affect everyone's bottom line. Learn how to get through the toughest of days and still remain smiling. Discover how to survive (and thrive) amidst today's healthcare crisis.
  
  
• I've Got One Nerve Left -and You're Standing on It - Expanding responsibilities, shrinking budgets, cranky coworkers, family demands, too much to do and not enough time to do it! Is it any wonder that we're all a little edgy? Find out how taking care of yourself can affect everyone's bottom line. Learn how to get through the toughest of days and still remain smiling. Discover how to survive and thrive in a world of change.
  
  
• It's Always Something - "You've got cancer." Three words that strike fear in people's hearts and conjure up concerns of chemo, radiation, surgery, pain, nausea, stress, anxiety and fatigue-not to mention hair loss. And as (comedienne and cancer patient) Gilda Radner would say, "It's always something." Cancer survivors and their care givers need lots of tools in their arsenal to fight cancer-and humor is a surprisingly powerful tool. Speaker, humor researcher, nurse and cancer survivor's-Mom Karyn Buxman will teach you how to twist your perceptions, play with your pain and experience the gifts of humor and laughter.