Jen Scotney

Jen Scotney is an ultrarunner, author, and podcast host who specialises in resilience, endurance, and navigating life's unexpected challenges with strength and adaptability. A former human rights lawyer for young people, she achieved podium finishes in gruelling races including the 190-mile Northern Traverse before chronic illness and two knee replacements reshaped her path. Now a mountain leader, yoga teacher, and parliamentary researcher in Scotland, Jen authored Running Through the Dark, chronicling her journey through setback and recovery. Her keynote sessions and Resilience Rising podcast equip audiences with practical strategies to embrace change, build mental endurance, and find purpose when plans fall apart, inspiring individuals and organisations to thrive through adversity.

After achieving podium finishes in some of Britain's most gruelling ultramarathons, including the 190-mile Northern Traverse and the 108-mile Montane Winter Spine Challenger South, Jen Scotney faced a challenge no amount of training could prepare her for: chronic illness and two knee replacements that threatened to end her running career entirely. Her response to this setback has defined her professional path ever since. Beginning as a human rights lawyer representing vulnerable young people in prison and care, she built a career around advocacy and resilience before her own physical struggles forced an unexpected pivot. That experience became the foundation for her acclaimed book, Running Through the Dark, which chronicles not the triumph of crossing finish lines, but the harder story of what happens when plans fall apart and the body refuses to cooperate.

Jen's credibility stems from lived experience rather than theory. Her transition from law to mountain leadership, yoga teaching, coaching, and podcasting wasn't a carefully mapped career change but a necessary reinvention born from adversity. She hosts the Resilience Rising podcast, where she explores the psychological and practical dimensions of coping with life's unexpected turns, drawing on her own journey through chronic fatigue, injury, and loss. Her work has been featured in Runner's World, Trail Running, and Women's Running, and she has appeared as a guest expert on platforms including the Tough Girl Podcast and Wild Ginger Running. Now working as a parliamentary researcher in Scotland, she combines her legal background with her passion for environmental and social issues, demonstrating the adaptability she teaches others to cultivate. She also volunteers as a trainee mountain rescue team member and serves on the board of trustees for the Skiddaw House Foundation, maintaining her connection to the outdoor spaces that shaped her recovery.

Jen's keynote sessions equip audiences with practical strategies for navigating change, building mental endurance, and finding purpose when circumstances demand flexibility rather than rigid determination. She addresses the reality that resilience isn't about bouncing back unchanged, but about adapting and discovering new paths forward. Her approach resonates particularly with individuals and organisations facing transformation, whether through restructuring, personal setback, or unexpected challenge. Audiences leave with actionable tools for managing chronic uncertainty, reframing failure, and maintaining forward momentum even when the original goal becomes impossible. By sharing both her athletic achievements and her subsequent struggles with authenticity, Jen creates space for honest conversations about vulnerability, persistence, and the strength required not just to endure, but to reinvent.