Dayna Altman

Active Minds Speaker

Dayna Altman is a professional mental health speaker from Active Minds.

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About Dayna

Dayna Altman is an energetic and dynamic speaker, entrepreneur, author, and creator. The full force and sole operator of Bake it Till You Make it LLC, Dayna harvests her passion for mental health advocacy by using food and baking to create an authentic recipe for vulnerable storytelling. A nationally recognized mental health leader by the Biden-Harris administration, a dual graduate of Northeastern University, and an active Boston community member, Dayna has experience both working in the mental health field and with youth-based non-profits. Currently, Dayna pursues writing poetry, documentary filmmaking, and exploring new ways to change the world using her own story. Living with depression and OCD, as well as being in recovery from an eating disorder and sexual assault, Dayna works each day to become her message.

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Despite considering herself an entrepreneur since the age of eight, Dayna feels she truly embarked on the art of being a creative changemaker during college. A dual magna cum laude graduate of Northeastern University, Dayna earned both her BS in Human Services and her Master’s of Public Health. She also happened to found the Northeastern Active Minds Chapter and Dayna continues to stay involved in the Northeastern student experience as a double husky alumna.

Before Dayna truly took her “leap” into running Bake it Till You Make it LLC full-time, she worked extensively with youth at McLean Hospital, Girls Inc. of Lynn and City Year. With a passion for supporting the mental health of young people, especially those who identify as girls, Dayna treasures the mentor relationships she created with her youth (many of whom are now exploring their own ways to change the world!)

Outside of speaking with Active Minds, Dayna pursues writing poetry, documentary filmmaking, and baking of course; all in the name of exploring new ways to change the world with her own story. Additionally, Dayna has been featured as an Aerie by American Eagle Changemaker, on CBS News and was named an Entrepreneur to Watch by Billion Success and Excelon Magazine.

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Booking information

Key topics

Depression
Trauma
Eating Disorders
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Recovery through Creativity
Youth Mental Health

Dayna’s Presentation Options

Healing from Scratch

Healing from Scratch is a presentation in which mental health author and entrepreneur, Dayna Altman tells her story with a twist. The creator of a baking-based mental health organization, Dayna chronicles her battles with depression, OCD, and eating disorders while facilitating a live bread-baking demonstration for her audience. Using ingredients as metaphors, Dayna’s raw account of her recovery is a means of inspiration and palatable conversation.

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What people are saying about Dayna

I was struck by Dayna’s affability and frankly in awe of her vulnerability in sharing such delicate experiences in an empowering way. She was incredibly responsible throughout the planning process, making our partnership seamless. I was blown away by Dayna’s ability to foster such an open environment for a group of 15. Dayna carefully wove in metaphors throughout her script which fostered robust group participation and gave a very heavy conversation a playful and silly component didn’t, etc. Dayna believes that food is something that unifies us and is easy to talk about, and I attribute the success of this powerful experience to her ability to weave references to mental health into every step of the recipes. She is incredible to work with.

-Illana Gensler, Northeastern University

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month this past May, Dayna led an interactive cooking demonstration for interested members of City Year’s corps, staff, and alumni communities during which she shared her mental health recovery story while baking. Dayna’s ability to be vulnerable, informative, and relatable while sharing her personal journey helped our people to feel validated and seen in their own journeys. I would be remiss if I did not share that Dayna has an uncanny ability to convey light and joy when presenting and communicating. Exploring topics related to mental health and well-being can be very heavy for folks and Dayna’s warm and humanizing presence helps people to feel supported and empowered in vulnerable spaces.

-Allison Hertz, City Year

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