About Brooke de Lench

Brooke de Brooke de Lench Lench is the Founding Executive Director of MomsTEAM Institute, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and Founder and Publisher of MomsTeam.com,® now in its 16th year as the trusted source for youth sports stakeholders of comprehensive, well-researched, objective information on a wide array of youth sports health, safety, nutrition, and sports parenting topics, from health, safety and nutrition to the psychology of parenting a young athlete, from ways in which parents can make youth sports less focused on winning games and more about having fun, to skill development and working towards providing every child a place to play.

Recognized as a visionary thought leader in safeguarding young athletes and a pioneer in concussion education for the past twenty years, Ms. de Lench oft called "The Mother of Youth Sports Safety" is Producer/Director/Creator of the critically acclaimed documentary "The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer" (PBS) which shows how to reduce the high rate of concussions in high school football, and better identify and manage them when they occur. The documentary aired nationwide on PBS stations across the country from 2013 to 2016.

She is a member of the UN International Safeguards for Children in Sports - a global coalition and is on the CDC head injury task group.

An active journalist and blogger for MomsTEAM, Ms. de Lench is the author of "Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports" (Harper Collins), and a sought-after lecturer, keynote speaker, and symposium panelist on a wide range of youth sport topics.

Among the most recent symposia in which Brooke has participated are the International Olympic Committee's World Conference on Prevention of Injury & Illness in Sport in Monaco, a two-day summit at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on the Sports Injury Epidemic, a recent Aspen Institute roundtable on "Playing Safety: The Future of Youth Football," a symposium on preventing sexual abuse in youth sports organized by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington, D.C., and as a panelist at the 2nd annual Coalition for Concussion Treatment (#C4CT) summit at the United Nations during Super Bowl XLVIII Week in New York City.

In September 2014 she spearheaded the first MomsTEAM Institute summit held at Harvard Medical School | Martin Center which boasts of a veritable whos who in youth sports safety. The title was: “SmartTeams Pay Safe: Protecting the Health and Safety of the Whole Child in Youth Sports by Implementing Best Practices.”

In 2002, Brooke established Teams of Angels, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization supporting families whose children have died or been catastrophically injured while playing sports. In 2003, she spearheaded Teams of Angels' successful "Save a Child's Life - An AED For Every Team" campaign, which raised funds to supply automated external defibrillators to teams across the country. She continues to provide support for and consult with families of youth athletes who have suffered catastrophic injury or death playing sports.

A veteran of more than 300 live television appearances speaking about ways to keep sports active kids safe, Brooke has appeared on all the major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, ESPN, and HBO), as well as The Today Show, CBS Morning Show, Early Show, and appeared in three documentaries on youth sports, which aired on ESPN, HBO and A&E respectively. Most recently, she was featured in a segment of ESPN's award-winning investigative sports journalism program, "Outside the Lines and the Today Show speaking about the new MomsTeam "Smart Teams" program.

Quoted frequently in the print press, including Time, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and Washington Post , Brooke's opinion pieces have appeared on the op-ed pages of major newspapers nationwide, including The Washington Post and Long Island Newsday.

Brooke has served as a spokesperson for major national brands such as Gatorade, Shock Doctor, Addidas, Boiron Pharmaceuticals, and others.

A former high school and college athlete, ranked squash player, soccer coach and administrator, and long time youth sports safety reform advocate, Brooke is the mother of sports-active triplet sons and lives in the Boston area. She can be reached by email at delench@MomsTEAM.com or you can follow her on Twitter @BrookeDeLench.

More info on Brooke de Lench can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_de_Lench

Recent media appearances/mentions include:

WGBH Greater Boston

"Some Youth Football Coaches Say Sport Unfairly Maligned"

Boston Globe

"Concerns bubble up as more young athletes specialize earlier."

PV (Nevada) Times

"Doctor: Concussions could be the demise of youth football"

University of Tennessee NEWS

"SmartTeams Pilot Program to Implement Youth Sports Safety Best Practices"

New York Times

"Canadian School District Goes To School On Concussions."