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Women's History Month Speaker: Blake Bolden

Blake Bolden has played, scouted and called hockey at its highest levels. She won gold at the first two U18 Women's World Championships with Team USA, captained Boston College, and won the Clarkson Cup in 2015 and the first Isobel Cup in 2016. In 2020 she became the second woman to scout in the NHL. Now she is a lead analyst for the PWHL and on Amazon Prime's Wednesday Night Hockey.

A Women's History Month event wants a speaker who helped build the thing being celebrated. Blake won the first Isobel Cup in the NWHL's first season, and now she calls PWHL games.

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A women in sports speaker with the whole arc

Most female athlete keynote speakers can tell you about their playing career. Blake can also tell you what came after. She went from defense to an NHL scouting department, and from there to a broadcast desk. Women were rare in both of those last two rooms. Sports Illustrated named her among the most powerful women in sports, and Sportsnet put her on its list of the 25 most powerful women in hockey.

Schools often pair a March event with Title IX. Blake can speak to what opportunity in sports meant for her: a girl from Cleveland who started in youth hockey, went to prep school at Northwood in Lake Placid, then played Division I at Boston College.

She works as a women's empowerment speaker for adults and a girls' empowerment speaker for students. For a girls' assembly she keeps it concrete: early mornings, getting cut, and getting back up.

For a company event in March, she can also speak to the adults who hire, coach and manage women. Her years in an NHL scouting department and on a broadcast crew give her a clear view of what helped her move up. Organizers often pair the talk with a Q&A or a smaller session for a women's network.

Blake Bolden at a Girls Empowerment Summit podium as a room of students applauds

Topics

Her topics, framed for Women's History Month

The same six themes she builds every talk from, with a March angle.

  1. 01

    Facing Adversity

    Being one of very few women in an NHL scouting room, and what she did with the seat.

  2. 02

    Using Failure as a Tool

    The phone call that told her she had not made the team, and why she thinks the noes teach the most.

  3. 03

    Getting Used to Being Uncomfortable

    From skating with a chair to Lake Placid, Boston, Switzerland and the Kings. Every step was new.

  4. 04

    Trusting the Process

    Two championship cups, won while getting home from road trips at 4 a.m. and going to work at 5.

  5. 05

    Following Intuition

    Choosing scouting, then broadcasting, when there were few women in either job to ask for advice.

  6. 06

    Taking Advantage of Your Current Situation

    For girls and women in the audience: start with the team, school or job in front of you.

Speaker reel

Watch Blake speak

Two and a half minutes from one of her talks: learning to skate pushing a chair, being cut and called uncoachable, the call that brought her to the Boston Blades, and the young girl who told Blake she started playing because of her.

From an organizer

Blake's visit was a total hit with our community, and the kids especially got so much out of her talks. She's amazing in the way that she can command a full room and then also connect so deeply with a small group of kids around a lunch table. I really appreciate the time and effort she put into tailoring the message for different audiences; they'll take her advice into all the spaces they go, both in sports and in life.

Carly Rodriguez

Director of Communications, The Thacher School

Speaking fees start at $7,500

Travel outside Southern California is quoted separately. Multi-session visits are packaged on request.

Check availability

Questions organizers ask

When should we book for March?

As early as you can. Heritage months fill first. Send your date or a range and the team will reply with what is open.

Can the talk connect to Title IX?

Yes. Tell us that is the theme of your event and Blake will shape the talk around what opportunity in sports meant for her and the players after her.

Can she speak to a girls' team or a girls' school?

Yes. Blake loves small groups, and a talk followed by a session with a team or a club is a common format.

More ways Blake speaks

All speaking topics and formats

Bring Blake to your event

Tell us the date, the place and who will be in the room. Blake and her team read every inquiry.

Start an inquiry