Kathryn Helgaas Burgum

Kathryn Helgaas Burgum is the First Lady of North Dakota and a high-profile public recovery advocate.

In long-term recovery for 15 years, she uses her personal experience to help others battling addiction. Helgaas Burgum is chairing a seven-member advisory council that will guide the efforts of a new Office of Recovery Reinvented, launched recently in North Dakota. This visionary office, which was created through an executive order, aims to promote "strategic and innovative efforts to eliminate the shame and stigma associated with the disease of addiction."

Helgaas Burgum has donated her time and leadership to many charitable causes over the years, including at-risk women and children, animal welfare, and visionary artists and the arts, along with addiction and recovery. The second youngest of four children, Helgaas Burgum grew up in Jamestown, N.D., where her family was in the John Deere business. She held her first job at the family business working in the parts department. Helgaas Burgum earned her undergraduate degree in retail business at Arizona State University and an MBA in human resources from the University of North Texas. In 2016, she married Douglas J. Burgum, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Governor of North Dakota.