Best-selling AuthorHarperCollins LeadershipFormer Seattle Police ChiefNational Media ContributorOrder Black in Blue
Speaking

Bring Carmen Best to your stage.

Carmen doesn’t deliver a generic leadership talk. She brings audiences inside the hardest decisions of a 28-year public-safety career, and sends them home with clarity they can use, not just inspiration they’ll forget.

Why Carmen

Three reasons hosts choose her.

  • Earned authority

    Every idea comes from having done the job, not studied it from a distance.

  • A real point of view

    Carmen takes a position. Audiences don’t get platitudes; they get a clear argument worth wrestling with.

  • Range

    She speaks as fluently to a corporate boardroom as to a room of law-enforcement leaders or a university audience.

Signature talks

Four talks, always tailored.

Every talk is tailored to the audience, the format, and the moment. Carmen also designs custom keynotes with event teams.

  • 01

    Leading When Trust Is Gone

    How leaders and institutions hold steady and begin to rebuild when public trust has collapsed. Carmen’s hardest-won lessons on crisis leadership.

  • 02

    The Team You Build Is the Test

    Why recruiting and keeping a workforce that reflects the public is one of the truest measures of leadership, and what it really takes.

  • 03

    Accountable: Leadership When Everyone Is Watching

    Decision-making, communication, and integrity under intense scrutiny, and how leaders stay grounded when every choice is examined.

  • 04

    The Future of Safe

    Where public agencies, technology, and private-sector security are converging, and what every organization should understand about what comes next.

Booking

Let’s talk about your event.

Carmen’s team reads every message. Expect a reply within a few business days.

Who Carmen speaks to

Audiences.

  • Corporate and business leadership teams
  • Public-sector and law-enforcement audiences
  • Conferences and professional associations
  • Universities and civic forums
Formats

Formats.

  • Keynote address
  • Fireside chat or moderated conversation
  • Panel
  • Leadership workshop or session
In her own words

Seen, not just summarized.

Carmen is a composed, magnetic presence on camera, as a leader and as a national news contributor. Two moments that show why audiences and producers trust her.

The decision that defined her. On her last day as Seattle’s police chief, Carmen explains why she chose to step down.
A national voice on a national moment. Carmen weighs in on the trial of Derek Chauvin, the analysis that made her a trusted on-air expert.
Speaking feesInvestment by region
Local
$10k to $20k
US West
$10k to $20k
US East
$20k to $35k
Europe
$35k to $55k
Asia
$35k to $55k
Ranges are a guideline and subject to change. Carmen travels from Washington State. Contact for an exact quote.
From past hosts

What event organizers say.

Attributed testimonials in production.

Carmen’s team is collecting quotes from past hosts. Each testimonial will include a verified name, title, organization, and event year before it ships here.