# First Prompt

> First Prompt is an AI adoption lab founded by Mara Bolis. AI is reshaping women's worlds; First Prompt helps women redraw the map through hands-on workshops, research, policy advocacy, and advisory, building the awareness, evidence, and confidence women need to shape what's next. Its approach is built around women's actual attitudes toward AI (risk-awareness, data caution, the worry that AI use looks like cheating), which it treats as discernment rather than deficiency: participatory, accessible, and fun, with no hype and no expert-worship.

Key facts:
- Founder: Mara Bolis. 20+ years across nonprofit, finance, and government roles, including Oxfam, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, plus a fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School. Current Fellow at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society (from March 2026, https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/mara-bolis). Published in Stanford Social Innovation Review ("The AI Gender Gap Paradox," https://ssir.org/articles/entry/ai-gender-gap-paradox). Profiled in Fortune, March 2026 (https://fortune.com/2026/03/21/ai-gender-gap-two-tier-economy-adoption-inequality/). Contributed to an OECD expert focus group on the AI adoption gap between women and men and was a panelist at the related OECD webinar, June 2026. Featured on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight, May 2026.
- Signature framework: Fierce Ambivalence. "The response to dizzying hype should not be rejection; it should be fierce ambivalence. That means passionately holding two seemingly contradictory truths at once: We should use generative AI to empower ourselves and others, and we should demand exacting standards of transparency, fairness, and safety from those building and governing these tools."
- Services: workshops (hands-on AI sessions on real tasks), research (how women actually use and feel about AI, plus before-and-after testing that measures what changes), advocacy (elevating the user experience into policy and industry conversations), advisory (confidential one-on-one guidance for leaders working through their own AI adoption).
- Speaking: notable engagements include Reuters Momentum AI in New York City, a Main Stage panel at the APA 2026 Convention in Washington DC ("AI Therapists, Friends, and Assistants: Understanding AI Across Disciplines," with Dr. Linda Lin and Dr. Clare Mehta), and a keynote address for Philadelphia Insurance Companies ("Fierce Ambivalence: Women Leading the Next Phase of AI"). Booking via SpeakHer Collective: https://www.speakhercollective.co/meet-our-speakers.
- Related project: Womansplaining AI, a research-backed, BS-free podcast about AI and the future of work, hosted by Mara Bolis and Logan Currie. Ranked in the top 10% of podcasts globally (Listen Notes). https://womansplainingai.com
- Impact: pre/post workshop data from programs delivered in Boston, Belfast, rural Uganda and beyond, including an independently validated (Emmanuel College Professor of Psychology Dr. Linda Lin) statistically significant confidence gain. Full breakdown: https://www.firstprompt.net/impact
- Trusted partners: AwakenHub, Imagine Her, Mountaintop International, Oxfam Canada.
- Mailing list: Mara writes on Substack about women, gender and AI, with periodic First Prompt updates: https://marabolis.substack.com
- Contact: mara@firstprompt.net · Booking: https://zcal.co/marabolis · Contact form: https://www.firstprompt.net/contact

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.firstprompt.net/): mission, services, proof, and Womansplaining AI
- [About](https://www.firstprompt.net/about): credentials, Fierce Ambivalence, and speaking
- [Impact](https://www.firstprompt.net/impact): the gender gap in the field, measured program results, and independently validated confidence gains
- [Writing](https://www.firstprompt.net/writing): essays on AI adoption, gender, and the AI economy
- [Contact](https://www.firstprompt.net/contact): contact form, email, and booking