When Dr. Catherine Hansen watched her husband, astronaut Jeremy Hansen, pack three separate landing bags before Artemis II’s launch — one for splashdown, one for pre-launch quarantine, and one for the unthinkable possibility of an emergency landing — she wasn’t just living through a historic moment in space exploration. She was living through the exact material she has spent 25 years teaching to executives, teams, and audiences around the world.

Catherine is a distinguished physician specializing in women’s health — a Canadian-trained, US board-certified OB/GYN and certified menopause practitioner. As a keynote speaker, she helps organizations prevent burnout, build resilient teams, and unlock sustainable performance within organizations navigating relentless pressure. Her husband, Jeremy Hansen, made history this year as the first Canadian to travel to the moon, serving as a mission specialist on Artemis II.

For two weeks, while Jeremy orbited farther from Earth than any human before him, Catherine put her own frameworks to the ultimate test — not in a boardroom, but at home, managing her own fear and anxiety in real time. The result is a rare, real-world case study in the exact principles she teaches: sustainable leadership, emotional resilience, and the discipline of bringing your whole, imperfect self to the moments that matter most.

Seventeen Years in the Making

In 2009, when Jeremy was selected as one of two Canadians to join the astronaut corps, Catherine was working as a solo, 24/7 on-call OB/GYN in Cold Lake, Alberta, married to a traveling fighter pilot, with three children all under 18 months old. Selection meant relocating the family to Houston, where Jeremy trained, then served as a Mission Control capcom before taking on increasingly senior roles within the astronaut corps.

To many, Catherine said, it could look like we were just waiting 17 years for a mission assignment. “But the reality was that we both continued to advance our careers, deepen our marriage, raise our children and find happiness in all the stages and phases of life.”

When discussions began about the crew assignment for Artemis II, it became obvious that Jeremy was well trained, positioned, and equipped to contribute. It was something we had dreamed about but held lightly, Catherine said, until the day Jeremy told his family he’d likely be assigned that week. Days later, the official call came.

A Wake-Up Call

While Jeremy was preparing for Artemis II, Catherine was hired as Chief Medical Officer for Effica Health, a virtual menopause clinic. Through her work, it became increasingly obvious that women were walking around in a fog of stress, overwhelm and exhaustion — herself included.

Catherine needed to heed her own advice to live more authentically. She began integrating daily habits and practices that allowed her to become more aligned with her passions and purpose. And, as the mission approached, she and Jeremy leaned deeper into those habits: meditating daily, connecting over raw and important conversations that they had previously avoided, sharing social time with friends and family, and prioritizing good food, daily exercise, and non-negotiable sleep habits.

“For us, the time leading up to the mission was our chance to enjoy the experience of something we had waited years to achieve and we did this together.,” Catherine said. “Productivity and sustainable performance are sourced from a healthy body, mind, and soul and we both believe that nurturing all aspects of the whole allows us to lead with more intentionality and conviction.”

The Ultimate Performance Protocol

As a keynote speaker, Catherine uses these proven techniques to transform how organizations build resilient teams, prevent burnout, and maximize leadership potential. She challenges audiences to identify their unique energy drains and build personalized protocols for high performance under pressure.

Preparing her family for Artemis II gave her the most demanding protocol of her life to design. As Jeremy’s training intensified, Catherine had to sit with a reality most never have to face so literally: her husband might not come home. Rather than avoid it, she and Jeremy worked through it directly, mapping out the practical, financial, and emotional steps that would carry their family forward. That process crystallized three truths she now folds directly into her work:

• Control what’s controllable. Energy and focus belong on the response to a crisis, not on trying to master the outcome.
• Make room for grief before you need it. Preparation isn’t just logistical — it’s emotional space, built in advance, with self-compassion.
• Isolation is the enemy of resilience. Catherine describes herself as fiercely independent by nature, someone who instinctively withdraws under stress. Ahead of the mission, she deliberately built a circle of trusted friends with regular check-ins — a structure that carried her through the entire two weeks.

These are just some of habits Catherine helps audiences instill within themselves and their organizations: intentional, pre-built systems that can hold a person or team up when the pressure hits.

Permission to Be Human

There was a specific moment one of Catherine’s key learnings suddenly became very real and very personal.

“Self-compassion and emotional space to feel all the ‘feels’ was necessary throughout this mission,” she said. “But that became very evident the night I watched Jeremy pack three landing bags and hand over his passport and identification to ground crew support.”

Each bag exists for a different version of what could happen: one for retrieval at splashdown, one for pre-launch quarantine at Cape Canaveral, and one for an off-nominal landing anywhere along the mission’s orbital trajectory — for an aborted mission. Seeing all three sit tagged on their bed was a physical reminder that things could go terribly wrong.

“I teach women to give themselves permission to be human,” Catherine said, “and that it is only through the acknowledgement and release of these intense emotions that we will continue to grow and learn and heal.” During the mission itself, she leaned on the same self-compassionate approach she coaches: when she needed rest, she rested; when she needed to be near mission control, she asked; when she needed to run, she ran; when she needed solitude, she took it.

It’s a candid rebuttal to the “push through it” model of performance that still dominates so many high-pressure workplaces — and a real-time demonstration of why her sustainable performance framework centres on identifying and honouring individual needs rather than applying one-size-fits-all resilience tactics.

The Team Behind the Crew

Catherine emphasizes in her keynotes that no one operates in isolation — sustainable high performance is built on the strength of the team around a person, not just their individual willpower. That lesson played out vividly during the mission.

The other Artemis II spouses became an irreplaceable support system, she said, the only people on Earth who truly understood what she was experiencing. She also witnessed it in NASA’s ground and science teams: lunar scientist Kelsey Young’s unfiltered excitement during the lunar flyby and launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson’s trembling voice as she gave the final go for launch, carrying the full weight of the crew’s safety and their families’ trust.

“This crew modelled for us that, even in the toughest of circumstances, you can still be authentically and imperfectly human,” Catherine said.

A Deeper Conviction

For Catherine, Artemis II was proof of concept. “It’s given me more confidence that what I offer organizations and audiences is in fact truly transformative and needs to be shared,” she says. The experience has sharpened her sense of purpose: to help people, and especially women, show up fully, in every arena of their lives, because unlocking that potential is, in her words, how we solve real problems and heal humanity.

Book Dr. Catherine Hansen as Your Next Keynote Speaker

Dr. Catherine Hansen brings something rare to the stage: not just research and clinical expertise, but a lived, high-stakes example of sustainable performance under the most extreme uncertainty imaginable. Her keynotes cover the topics reshaping today’s workplaces: burnout and sustainable performance, menopause as a strategic business issue, and the resilience it takes to lead when everything is on the line. Contact us to learn more about Catherine and how to book her for your next event.

For organizations looking for an unforgettable dual perspective, Catherine and Jeremy Hansen can also be booked together, offering audiences a rare, behind-the-scenes look at Artemis II from both the astronaut’s and the family’s point of view — a powerful exploration of partnership, resilience, and what it truly takes to support each other through history-making pressure.