Meet Nicole
PHOTO BY Deborah Hart
Meet Nicole
CEO & INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER
Nicole Snell is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, facilitator, and personal safety expert specializing in sexual assault prevention education, gender-based violence prevention, empowerment-based self-defense, and boundary setting. She received a full scholarship to attend Cal State University, Long Beach, as a President's Scholar and graduated with honors including Summa Cum Laude and Distinguished Student of Liberal Arts with a BA in Speech Communication.
Nicole spent the next 12 years working as a Line Producer in the entertainment industry and produced over 75 shows worldwide. In 2014, she changed careers to women's empowerment, sexual assault prevention, and advocacy. She began working with the Department of Navy Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (DON SAPRO), facilitating Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) workshops at military installations worldwide including the Pentagon, NATO, and the Office of Naval Intelligence. She has trained service members at over 100 military installations to date.
In 2020, Nicole purchased Girls Fight Back, now a Black woman-owned business, after 6 years of being a GFB Speaker because of her passion for empowering women, advocating for women’s rights, and her desire to make the world a safer place for people of all gender identities. Nicole is a dynamic speaker who is renowned for her ability to connect with and engage audiences of all sizes and across demographics. Her programs are evidence-based, trauma-informed, interactive, and inclusive.
In addition to her role as CEO/Owner of Girls Fight Back, she is the founder of Outdoor Defense and a lead instructor for IMPACT Personal Safety & IMPACT Global. Nicole is also an NACP Credentialed Victim Advocate, a Credentialed ESD Professional, a subject matter expert and a survivor advocate. Her self-defense training includes IMPACT LA, Defense Against the Armed Assailant training, and FAST defense. She has traveled the world speaking, delivering keynotes, and facilitating workshops at over 450 military installations, colleges, high schools, Fortune 500 Companies, corporations, outdoor women’s retreats, hiking organizations, private groups, and more. In 2017 she volunteered in Fiji to teach self-defense to the women and girls in local villages. In 2022 she taught self-defense to groups in Rwanda, Thailand, and Mexico.
Nicole has been featured in Women’s Health Magazine, Backpacker Magazine, Runner's World, Outside Magazine, and Spectrum 1 News. She has also been a guest on over 40 podcasts, including the Nike Trained Podcast, Wild Ideas Worth Living, and Fox True Crime. Nicole won a People’s Voice Webby Award in May 2020 for her feature in the self-defense instructional video by Tastemade Travel in collaboration with IMPACT Personal Safety. She was also featured in a short film by HOKA called Time to Be Limitless which highlighted her love of solo hiking and empowering others with outdoor safety skills.
In her spare time, Nicole is incredibly active and is a passionate outdoors adventurer. She is a HOKA Global Advocate and a writer for Treeline Review. She loves to hike (she summited Mt. Whitney in June 2022!), camp, backpack, ride horses, play sports, hit the gym, and travel the world, often solo. She's visited 34 countries to date. She is also an active volunteer in her community and an advocate for diversity and representation in the outdoors and beyond.
Nicole is committed to ending violence in all of its forms and believes everyone has the right to walk through the world feeling safe, powerful, and confident. For more information, visit Nicole at her website:
"Her enthusiasm and her warmth are contagious; students invariably come out of her classes feeling stronger, happier, and more confident than when they came in. Nicole makes self-defense training fun as well as informative."
—STUDENT, UCLA
“Great tools to help feel capable and empowered when handling uncomfortable and difficult situations. Nicole is a great speaker!”
-ATTENDEE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
PHOTO BY Deborah Hart
PHOTO BYJovelle Tamayo
PHOTO BY MC2 Ramon Go
"Nicole's course provided me with the tactics, tools and confidence to feel empowered to fight back against people who would threaten my safety. I can't tell you how grateful I am for these skills and thinking. This course has really helped me to transition my thinking from a place of fear to one where I am worth fighting for and always have options!"
- ANONYMOUS STUDENT, YES I'M HIKING SOLO PROGRAM