Marisa Zeppieri
TEDx Speaker/Author/Chronic Illness Warrior, Inspiring People to Stand Firm in Faith When Everything Else Falls Away
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Marisa Zeppieri
Biography
Marisa Zeppieri knows what it means to lose everything and what it takes to rebuild with intention and faith. After being run over as a pedestrian at 50 mph and soon after diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune disease (Systemic Lupus), she lost her mobility, her independence, her nursing career, and nearly her life. In a season marked by hospital rooms, uncertainty, and learning how to walk again, Marisa wrestled not only with physical survival but with questions of identity, purpose, and God’s plan in the middle of suffering. What could have been the end of her story became the place where her faith was refined and her calling clarified. She chose not just to survive but to rebuild with purpose rooted in Christ.
Today, she is a 3x author, TEDx speaker, and founder of LupusChick, one of the largest chronic illness nonprofits and digital platforms in the world, reaching more than five million people each month. She is the author of the award-winning Christian hybrid memoir Chronically Fabulous, a powerful testimony of faith in the face of chronic illness, and the forthcoming Side Effects May Include Everything — a sharp, humorous, no-filter exploration of how to thrive in career, relationships, and purpose despite the chaos of chronic, incurable illness. What began as one woman clinging to hope has grown into one of the most recognized patient-led movements across the globe — proof that God can multiply even our most broken seasons into impact beyond what we imagine. Her TEDx talk quickly reached nearly 650,000 views in just a few months, reflecting a global hunger for conversations rooted in empathy, courage, and redemption.
With more than 20 years in national media as a journalist, including work with Gannett/USA Today Network, BBC, Al Jazeera, HuffPost, and Healthline, Marisa brings rare dual authority to the stage: investigative rigor and lived experience under extreme pressure. She has appeared for corporations, healthcare leaders, faith conferences, advocacy organizations and more, where she speaks boldly about the spiritual resilience required to endure seasons when healing doesn’t look the way we hoped.
Her keynotes weave faith and fortitude, reminding audiences that suffering does not disqualify us — it deepens us. Marisa speaks to the anatomy of comeback through a biblical lens: how God shapes character in hidden seasons, how identity can be rebuilt after loss, and how purpose often emerges from the very places we prayed would pass. Whether addressing faith-based audiences, women’s conferences, healthcare leaders, or corporate teams open to conversations about meaning and resilience, she equips people to rise in moments that threaten to define them and to transform trials into testimony.
Marisa lives in the mountains of the Carolinas with her husband and family; when she is not speaking or writing, you can often find her in her art studio, painting.
Marisa Zeppieri
Featured Keynote Programs
When Everything Breaks
Finding God in the Dark Season
What happens when the life you built collapses overnight? After surviving catastrophic injury and life-threatening illness, Marisa wrestled with fear, identity, and the question every believer asks in suffering: Where is God in this? In this deeply honest keynote, she shares how faith is not the absence of pain — it is the anchor that carries us through it — and how God often does His deepest work in the seasons we would never choose.
Faith in the Fire
Trusting God When the Healing Is Slow
Healing does not always happen the way we pray for it. Marisa shares her journey of learning to walk again, rebuilding her life, and trusting God in the waiting, revealing how slow seasons refine courage, deepen faith, and prepare us for impact beyond our imagination.
Rebuilding on the Rock
Identity After Everything Changes
We all want mountaintop moments but God shapes warriors in the valley. When illness and loss stripped away her career, independence, and plans, Marisa faced a deeper question: Who am I when the titles are gone? Through powerful storytelling and biblical reflection, she invites women to anchor their identity not in performance, productivity, or health — but in Christ — and to discover purpose that cannot be shaken.
Other Faith Related Topics I have spoken on:
Other Faith Related Topics I have spoken on:
Built From the Wreckage: The Power of Rebuilding After Life Shatters Your Plans
From Crisis to Clarity: What Trauma Taught Me About Courage and Purpose
Beauty After the Breaking: Finding Identity, Faith, and Strength Beyond Trauma
Soul Strength in the Storm: Anchoring identity in Christ, not circumstance
God Didn’t Waste It: Finding divine purpose in seasons you would never have chosen.
From Victim to Voice: Transforming abuse and trauma into advocacy — and using your story to liberate others.
Faith, Fear, and Forward Motion: Spiritual strength in the face of uncertainty
Marisa Zeppieri
Featured Books
Side Effects May Include Everything: A Guide to Living and Thriving with Chronic Illness
by Marisa Zeppieri
When life hands you a diagnosis that upends everything, there’s no pamphlet that tells you how to keep living—and laughing—through the chaos.
In Side Effects May Include Everything, award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and lupus warrior Marisa Zeppieri offers the brutally honest, laugh-out-loud, and deeply compassionate guide she wishes she’d had twenty years ago. Drawing from two decades of hard-earned experience navigating autoimmune disease, she tackles every corner of life chronic illness touches—love, work, sex, friendship, self-worth, and the constant battle to be believed.
With empathy and wit, Zeppieri replaces medical jargon with real talk: how to deal with dismissive doctors, set boundaries that protect your energy, and find joy in a body that’s still learning to cooperate. Whether you’re newly diagnosed, still searching for answers, or supporting someone who’s sick, this book is a lifeline—a reminder that even when it feels like your body is betraying you, laughter, love, and purpose are still possible.
Raw, funny, and fiercely hopeful, Side Effects May Include Everything is part survival guide, part sisterhood, and 100% proof that you can rebuild a beautiful life—no matter what your diagnosis says.
Chronically Fabulous: Finding Wholeness and Hope Living with Chronic Illness
by Marisa Zeppieri
Winner of the 2022 Goody Business Book Award for Health-Wellness.
When Marisa Zeppieri was 22-years-old she found herself face-to-face with a raven-haired elderly woman who had emerged from a crowd and gently taken her hands: "God will use these hands to change people's lives."
Years later Marisa's once-spirited demeanor was shrouded in anger and bitterness. Triggered first by a near-fatal car accident that sent her 100-lb body flying from a crosswalk and later by a painful Lupus diagnosis, she became stuck in a season of brokenness.
But in the seasons that followed, an insatiable emotional, spiritual, and physical hunger took over: She learned how to nourish her broken body with the help of food, herbs, and a gastronomically-gifted Italian grandmother, while also nourishing her broken heart and crushed spirit through a deeper relationship with God.
With Chronically Fabulous, Marisa fulfills the old woman's prophecy by offering pure nourishment to those of us living with chronic illness, helping us create wholeness and well-being through a love of food. Here, the founder of LupusChick, a nonprofit supporting those with autoimmune diseases, offers guiding principles, personal stories, and recipes that support whole-life thriving. With the depth, smarts, and spiritual advice beloved by her dedicated followers, Marisa shows us how faith, passion, and persistence can radically change our lives.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to some of the most common questions about booking Marisa Zeppieri for your event.
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