Nicole is the Education Program Officer for the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. She supports operational success, program delivery, grantmaking strategy and evaluation of the Education Program.
She is driven by the urge to tackle barriers that contribute to inequitable outcomes for students who have been traditionally underserved. She has over 11 years of experience working in and around philanthropy, nonprofits and education institutions. She was most recently the Senior Manager of Grantmaking at Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation where she strengthened and managed their grantmaking systems and processes. She also helped develop and nurture key partnerships with grantees essential to the organization’s strategic initiatives on play equity, early literacy and food insecurity. Prior to Eat. Learn. Play., she worked as a Partnerships Manager at United Way Bay Area, leading a project to replicate their program model and scale it across the state at postsecondary institutions, while supporting a regional network of partner grantees learning and working together towards a common goal of economic stability and success. Nicole has also held positions as an education program associate at a private foundation, and an associate at a university supporting student enrollment.
While pursuing her post-graduate degree, she worked at a university in Zhenjiang, China teaching English to post-secondary students. She holds an MA in International Studies with a focus in Education from Concordia University Irvine and earned a BS in Multinational Business Operations from Florida State University. During her undergraduate career, she participated in early education internships, working at child development centers on military bases in Japan and Germany.
