our founder

Learn about Kylie Komaridis and the foundations CTC grew from

MEET OUR FOUNDER

Kylie Komaridis

Founder of Connecting Through Courage

Kylie Komaridis didn’t come to this work through a textbook—she came to it through lived experience.

Growing up in a family impacted by alcoholism, and later facing her own struggles with substance use and a decades-long eating disorder, Kylie spent years asking the same

question:

Why?

Why do some people struggle while others don’t?

Why is help so hard to reach—and even harder to ask for?

KYLIE'S EXPERIENCE

In 2020, she began working at an adolescent girls’ treatment facility. It didn’t take long to realize something powerful—she saw herself in the girls she was working with. Their pain, their potential, their stories… they felt familiar. And for the first time, everything clicked.

This wasn’t just work. This was purpose.

Kylie went back to school, earned her degree in Alcohol and Drug Studies, and became a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She went on to work in prevention across rural Minnesota, determined to make a difference earlier—before people reached crisis. But what she saw stopped her in her tracks.

The stigma was still everywhere.

People weren’t just struggling with substance use disorders—they were struggling in silence. Afraid of judgment. Afraid of being labeled. Afraid of losing everything if they asked for help. Families were overwhelmed, confused, and alone, with little guidance on how to support someone they love.

And the truth became clear:

Stigma wasn’t just part of the problem—it was driving it.

Kylie searched for a place that was actively working to change that—to educate communities, support families, and bring evidence-based approaches into real conversations.

She couldn’t find it. So she built it.