Building stronger communities of care: Empower yourself and your communities

Ryder Fox is the Founder and CEO of Stronger U and the Founder and President of THRIVE Lifeline. They are a trauma-informed wellness coach, educator, systems strategist, and curriculum developer with nearly 30 years of experience supporting people navigating chronic illness, disability, trauma, and other complex life experiences. Over the course of their career, Ryder has logged more than 60,000 coaching hours, mentored hundreds of practitioners, and educated thousands of professionals internationally through courses, conferences, and organizational partnerships. They specialize in helping practitioners develop sustainable, relationship-centered approaches that support clients through chronic health conditions, trauma histories, periods of crisis, and the realities of long-term care. Since founding Stronger U in 2007, Ryder has had the privilege of supporting some clients continuously for nearly two decades—walking alongside them through flare cycles, evolving diagnoses, disability progression, grief, recovery, and life's many uncertainties. Their work emphasizes client autonomy, trauma-informed care, ethical practice, and building helping relationships that remain effective over time. In 2020, Ryder founded THRIVE Lifeline, a nonprofit dedicated to identity-affirming, non-carceral crisis intervention and peer support for multiply marginalized communities. Through THRIVE, they have helped develop innovative educational programs that train practitioners to engage in more humane, autonomy-supportive conversations around suicide, crisis, and complex mental health experiences. Ryder also brings lived experience as a neurodivergent, nonbinary person living with chronic physical and mental health conditions. Their teaching is grounded in the belief that professional expertise and lived experience can work together to create more compassionate, ethical, and effective care. Across every course they teach, Ryder's goal is to help professionals become more thoughtful, confident, and deeply human in the relationships they build with those they serve.