Liz McConaghy
Mental health is a board-level cost line. Yet most organisations still treat psychological strain in their workforce as an HR programme rather than an operating risk. The speakers who shift that conversation tend to be the ones who have been through it themselves, not the ones who study it from a distance.
Liz McConaghy is the longest-serving female crewman on the RAF Chinook Fleet and a mental health speaker who helps organisations confront PTSD, resilience, and recovery through her own near-fatal experience after leaving service.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Liz McConaghy
- A first-person account of operational PTSD from someone who survived a suicide attempt, not a clinical overview of mental health from a third-party expert.
- Seventeen years on the Chinook Fleet, including ten Afghanistan deployments and MERT casualty recovery under fire. The credibility on high-stakes teamwork is earned, not theoretical.
- 2023 Inspirational Woman in Defence Award, recognising her public advocacy on PTSD and recovery among veterans.
- A bestselling book (Chinook Crew ‘Chick’) that gives audiences a durable artefact to take back into the organisation after the talk.
- Direct relevance for organisations with armed-forces-connected workforces, high-stress operating teams, or active mental health and resilience programmes.
Biography highlights
- Longest-serving female crewman on the RAF Chinook Fleet, with over 3,000 flying hours across a 17-year career.
- Two Iraq deployments and ten Afghanistan deployments under Operation Herrick, including service on the Medical Emergency Response Team.
- Author of Chinook Crew ‘Chick’ (Pen and Sword, 2022), Amazon Bestseller within three weeks of release.
- 2023 Inspirational Woman in Defence Award winner.
- Mental health and PTSD ambassador for veterans, drawing on her own near-fatal post-service crisis.
- Featured speaker for the Institute of Leadership and a regular contributor on military leadership and recovery.
Biography
The Medical Emergency Response Team flew casualty recovery under fire in Helmand. Soldiers died and were resuscitated on the cabin floor of the Chinook. Liz McConaghy spent ten deployments on that aircraft, and the operational cost of it caught up with her years later, not in service.
She joined the RAF at 19, deployed to Iraq at 21, and stayed on the Chinook Fleet for 17 years. Three thousand flying hours, two Iraq tours, ten Afghanistan tours, and four years as the only female crewman on the wing. She left in 2019, and in August 2020 attempted suicide.
What followed was the work she now brings into organisations. A bestselling autobiography, Chinook Crew ‘Chick’, published by Pen and Sword in 2022. The 2023 Inspirational Woman in Defence Award. An ambassadorship for veteran mental health, built on the argument that PTSD is a chapter of a life, not the definition of one.
For organisations carrying the cost of psychological strain on their people, the value is the source. McConaghy speaks as someone who has been through the failure mode that mental health programmes are meant to prevent, and who is articulate about what brought her back.
Key speaking topics
- Mental health and PTSD in high-pressure roles
- Resilience after operational and personal trauma
- Team leadership in extreme operating environments
- Self-leadership and recovery
- Women in male-dominated workplaces
- Veteran transition and post-service identity
Ideal for
- CHROs, wellbeing leads, and ER teams running mental health and resilience programmes at scale
- Organisations with armed-forces-connected workforces, including defence primes, security contractors, and emergency services
- Leadership offsites where the agenda includes psychological safety, burnout, or sustained performance under load
- Employee network groups and ERGs focused on women, veterans, or mental health
Audience outcomes
- A first-person reference point for what operational PTSD looks like, and what recovery from it actually involves
- Practical language for opening internal conversations about suicide risk and post-service mental health
- A clearer view of how high-functioning teams in extreme environments sustain themselves, and where they fail
- Renewed permission, particularly for senior leaders, to treat their own mental health as an operating variable
Talks
A corporate keynote built around her RAF career, the MERT, and her recovery from a near-fatal mental health crisis after service.
Key takeaways:
- How sustained team performance is built and maintained under operational stress
- What PTSD looks like from the inside, and what recovery requires
- Practical lessons on leadership in male-dominated and high-pressure environments
A talk for charity and advocacy audiences focused on survivor narrative, mental health, and the case for speaking openly about suicide.
Key takeaways:
- Why veteran mental health remains under-served and how organisations can help close the gap
- How public storytelling shifts the conversation around PTSD
- The role of community in sustained recovery
A schools and early-career talk on resilience, ambition, and pursuing demanding careers as a young woman.
Key takeaways:
- Career path lessons from a non-traditional route into aviation
- How to build confidence in environments where you are the only woman in the room
- Why mental health literacy matters early in a career