A Video Producer Living with MS Works to Build Community and Fight the Loneliness Associated with the Disease.

Episode 4: Kate Milliken

Listen to the inspiring story of a video producer living with MS who is working to positively impact the mental effects of the disease. You can also listen to me gush about how cool she was in elementary school.

Bio: For five years, Kate Milliken was immersed in the personal stories of people living with chronic illness as the founder of MyCounterpane.com, an online platform that allows patients and caregivers to lay out their personal narratives based on how they feel.  The venture began when Kate was diagnosed with MS in 2006.  Kate saw a need for moment- based authentic content of what it was like to actually live with an illness, where every entry was tagged with an emotion to make it immediately helpful and easily searchable for people in need of finding others to relate to.  MyCounterpane aimed to demonstrate insights and prove outcomes in the emotional realm of health, healing people through the story of them in the process.  Though the company began to relevant data, they were unable to find a clear revenue model, and as a result, this iteration of MCP closed in June 2018.

Kate is now deliberating her next chapter which will be based in the biggest insights she garnered from her work- that loneliness kills and that connection over time builds resilience.   

Pre- MS, Kate founded Milligrace Productions, a video production company specializing in mini documentaries for private, corporate and non-profit clients.  She has worked in television for more than 15 years, off camera as a producer for the View and VH-1 and as a correspondent in alternative sports (such as snowboarding, mountain biking and monster trucks) where she worked for Fox Sports NET, TNT, TNN the Outdoor Life Network and Oxygen. 

 Kate lives in Bronxville, New York with her husband and two young children, a 8-year old son who works to throw 3 pointers on a basketball court like Steph Curry and a 6-year daughter who wages a daily battle against the hairbrush.