Expanding the Bench (2022): ACE Evaluation Network Member Highlight: Nicole Clark

EvalCentral (2020): Independent Consulting with Nicole Clark (webinar interview) (free registration required to view)

Doin’ the Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change (2018): Nicole Clark, LMSW: Consulting, Reproductive Justice, & Racial Equity (podcast interview)

Notes from An Aspiring Humanitarian (2018): “Nicole Clark’s 5 Part Series on Solopreneurship”

inSocialWork Podcast (2017): “Social Work and Entrepreneurship” (podcast interview)

Whine & Cheese (2017): Uncorked Series: Self Love with Nicole Clark, LMSW, (podcast interview)

Social Work.Career (2017): “25 Social Workers Share Why They Love Social Work”

Best MSW Programs (2015): “Top 50 Social Work Blogs”

“SCOTUS struck down the constitutional right to abortion during our strategic planning process. This wasn’t unexpected, but the impact on medical education has been unprecedented. Nicole helped us stay focused on our planning and helped us distinguish between the urgency of now and our need to build strategy to guide us through post-Roe work in the US. I contracted with Nicole because I was nervous about developing a strategic plan in the middle of evolving crisis in the movement for reproductive rights, health, and justice. MSFC is a global non-profit, and I knew we needed the right consultant to help us build strategy that is equitable and mission focused yet flexible to adjust to evolving legal frameworks. I knew Nicole was the right consultant and I love being right! Working with Nicole eased my nervousness, allowing me to enjoy the process AND get excited about our future plans. As a non-profit with chapters in 29 countries across the globe, we sought guidance in shifting our work to reflect our global presence. Nicole helped us find the right path and identify objectives that are ambitious yet achievable. I enthusiastically recommend Nicole Clark Consulting to any organization ready to build strategy that will advance their mission.” ~ Pamela Merritt, Executive Director, Medical Students for Choice 

“Nicole Clark Consulting was a tremendous partner for Amnesty International USA as we evaluated our gun violence prevention campaign, Heroes Against Gun Violence. We were able to gather authentic and honest perspectives from our community-intervention partners and our Hero [participants] due to Nicole’s perceptiveness, humility, and deep understanding of the impacted communities. Nicole’s deep understanding of the nuances that come with impacted communities and working with them was tremendously helpful in evaluating this campaign. Nicole also ensured that the project received high response rates from all stakeholders through continuous follow-up and was a great communicator throughout the project. We at AIUSA are looking forward to using the learnings from the evaluation not only to continue engaging gun violence prevention leaders, but to also ensure that learnings are institutionalized across the organization.” ~ Zehra Mirza, Director of Impact and Learning, Amnesty International USA 

“My colleagues and I cannot thank you enough for agreeing to speak at the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association’s 2021 national conference. Your session, “Strategies for Incorporating the Reproductive Justice Framework into Your Messaging” was engaging and useful for participants, and lot of that was the result of the energy you brought, as well as your ability to provide concrete examples and break down complex concepts. Thank you again and I look forward to opportunities to collaborate again in the future..” ~ Elizabeth Jones, MPA, director, Service Delivery Improvement, National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association

“We hired Nicole to facilitate a learning collaborative of contraceptive justice advocates, clinicians, and researchers to recommend new approaches to measuring contraceptive access. At first, we really weren’t sure of either function or form. Nicole brought both along with a deep appreciation for honoring the people in the room as people first. Nicole is all around exceptional, from her timely delivery of all agreed items, her facilitation skills, and incredibly adaptable thinking given challenges like COVID. She is also able to weave together her expertise in Reproductive Justice and evaluation to ensure that spaces are productive, safe, and grounded in deep commitment to our communities. Nicole is the most competent facilitator we’ve ever worked with. She’s engaging, thoughtful, and always rigorous, and we can’t overstate how powerfully she utilizes her expertise and her personality to create a productive and safe space. We can’t recommend Nicole highly enough, and we ‘re excited to continue working to share our contraceptive access measure recommendations with our communities in ways that ensure the community voice is lifted up.” ~ Jamie Bardwell & Danielle Lampton, co-founders, Converge: Partners in Access 

“We hired Nicole Clark Consulting because we needed to update our curriculum and materials to reflect current industry best practices for equity and inclusion. We put together a process for review and NCC was able to work within that process to give us insightful feedback and editing suggestions that we could implement on a timeline that worked for us. Nicole’s comments were clear and concise and she perfectly followed our rather complicated process. It was really helpful to have an external perspective, especially when you hire a consultant with actual expertise and experience in sexual and reproductive justice. We finished our curriculum on our planned timeline and we now have a curriculum that reflects our organization’s commitment to worth and equity.” ~ Danielle Shaw, managing director, Provide, Inc. 

“Nicole is a wealth of knowledge and information. She is thoughtful, insightful, and provides workshops and trainings for youth of color that leave important and long-lasting impacts. Her voice is one that is sorely needed in the field of sexuality and Reproductive Justice. She is personable, professional and connects well with numerous communities. Having Nicole as a part of your team means you are doing the right kind of work!”    ~ Bianca I. Laureano, award winning sexologist, co-founder of the Women of Color Sexual Health Network Latino Sexuality, and co-founder of The LatiNegr@s Project 

“Thank you again for being a guest on our podcast series and speaking on “Social Work Entrepreneurship.” Your interview gives a clear description of what transitioning from an agency based social worker to an independent consultant was like. You also provide extremely helpful tips and tools for the individual who is considering the same path. We appreciated that you emphasized what is most important is deciding on what one is passionate about. By explaining how you incorporate the Reproductive Justice framework into your business, you set an example of how to build a business around passion. We are certain that this episode will inspire many. Also, your interview has been downloaded over 1400 in its first week! Usually the first week of access has an average of 1000 downloads but this has surpassed that average significantly. We are sure that this podcast episode will continue to have a strong following moving forward. We here at inSocialWork truly appreciate your work in this area and look forward to future collaborations.” ~ Caitlin Beck, inSocialWork Podcast  at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work

“I first met Nicole when we volunteered with an underserved population of young girls in Atlanta. Though she has a very quiet spirit, her love and passion for helping others is quite evident. I once asked her to speak on a panel encouraging college students to discover their passion through volunteerism. It was one of, if not, the first speaking engagement in which she’s participated and she was awesome! Her personal story was compelling. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of watching Nicole set her focus on women and reproductive rights, and do and speak on some amazing things! I’ve subscribed to her newsletter and even shared her articles on self-care with my women’s network because they aren’t only informative, they’re inspiring. I am proud to know Nicole and all that she’s accomplished and would certainly recommend her as an advocate/speaker and adviser.” ~ Natalie Dean, founder, Whine & Cheese 

“I’ve watched Nicole create  consulting firm from scratch that centers the experiences of women and girls of color and provides her clients the tools to be culturally responsive, transparent, and affirming. Her use of social media to ask the powerful questions of those of us committed to flipping the script of institutional racism and sexism is brilliant and effective.” ~ Airial Clark, MA, sex-positive parenting expert and women’s leadership trainer, AirialClark.com

“In the earlier days of my writing [on my blog] Notes from an Aspiring Humanitarian I wrote about how I wish I’d learned more about the skills required for entrepreneurship while pursuing my degrees in Social Work. I later published a follow-up post that carried over from conversations on LinkedIn where other Social Work professionals weighed in on some things that they wish they would have learned while in school. For folks who might be interested in getting into consulting, and using your passion and skills to work for social justice in an entrepreneurial way, I want to share Nicole Clark’s 5 part series on Solopreneurship. Nicole is one of the many people I would not have had a chance to learn about had I not started blogging. One of the things I appreciate about her the most is her willingness to make her experiences accessible to folks who might wish to follow her path, or chart out their own journey.” ~ Relando Thompkins-Jones, social justice educator

“I’ve used some of your materials in my counseling meetings with staff. Your information has been a great resource.“ ~ Trista Fitzpatrick, Patient Services Director, Allentown Women’s Center

“I just wanted to personally thank you for your presentation [on the history of the reproductive justice framework] to our department. I so appreciated you taking time time to come share with us and you serving as an consultant for our Sexual and Reproductive Justice campaign. As someone who is delving into reproductive justice for the first time in my life, it is such an honor to get taught by people really doing this work. It was particularly helpful to [hear about] organizations doing this work and the diversity of topics in their ongoing projects. At times, it can be hard to grasp RJ because it encompasses so much, so the concrete examples you gave were really helpful.“ ~ Natalie Taylor, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene’’s Bureau of Maternal, Infant, and Reproductive Health (Sexual  and Reproductive Health Unit)

“Your honesty and willingness to share about [full time employment] and your consulting business have had a real impact on me lately. I’m in social work school right now studying management and consulting, and trying to piece together some contracts in the meantime that will allow me to transition to consulting full time in the future…Your [discussions] about macro practice in social work really helped solidify that it was the [MSW] degree I wanted (rather than an MPH), and your commentary on social workers making good consultants helped me hone in on a focus. If I was going to go back to school after working for a decade, I wanted to make sure my education was directly relevant to my career path! This is a long way of saying thank you, and that I look forward to reading more of your work!” ~ Jennifer Drake Fantroy, Assistant Director, Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life

“I facilitated ‘The Story of Me, The Story of Us, The Story of Now‘ exercise, featured in the October 2017 edition of [Nicole Clark Consulting’s] Raise Your Voice for Women & Girls of Color newsletter, during Black Mental Wellness Weekend (BWWW) in Chicago. [A]fter reading the steps, I knew I could incorporate this process as an activity during my mental wellness workshop. Coupled with consciousness raising, a black feminist community/group intervention, this tool assisted in creating space and place for inclusive and intersectional mental wellness and healing. Applying the tool, to the topic of queer wellness resources on the southside of Chicago, this process connected personal stories to current problems our communities are facing, and to the larger vision of a community that we want…The Story of Me|Us|Now generated far-reaching stories of disappointment, stigma, hope, and love. Community members voiced expressions about (a) unmet needs; (b) heteronormative black culture and parenting styles; (c) invisibility surrounding magnitude and impact of lack of community supports; (d) and access to LGBTQ/gender-non conforming(GNC) mental health professionals were connected to the need for consistent and accessible mental wellness resources. It also allowed space to process emotions and place to move towards reflective action planning at the individual and community level. Reflecting on the collective stories and reimagining the future to increase access to supportive services, I am hopeful that community opportunities which encourage mental wellness will become more prevalent and create space and place to impact the challenges that black and brown communities face.” ~ Sequoya D. Hayes, LSW, program evaluation consultant and research assistant

“I attended your workshop on self care at the [Civil Liberties and Public Policy] conference and picked up a copy of “The Revolution Starts with Me!: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals & Resources” self care zine. I now have a much higher demanding job (working with youth who have been in foster care as a supervisor and as a therapist) and just came across the zine and it is JUST WHAT I NEED. It is so wonderful. Thank you much! I also plan to share it with some case managers I work with and some social workers I know. I really appreciate that you have made the link available so I can do so. Thank you for this awesome resource and for doing this important work of supporting helpers in self care!” ~ Rachel W.

“We initially asked Nicole to consult on self care during our organization’s staff meeting. We later asked Nicole to facilitate more in-depth organizational goal review and goal setting for our organization, as well as provide guidance on leadership and management. Nicole was the perfect person to bring in for our meeting. She provided an objective analysis of organizational capacity and practices, and provided a number of tools for moving to the next level. She provided constructive feedback, guided us through a review of our management challenges and gave sound advice on how to move forward. [We] truly enjoyed the goal setting exercise and getting a firmer handle on what management style best fits our organization. The self care work was also helpful and very much needed. Working with Nicole helped us review our work and organizational structure in a constructive and meaningful way. She helped us work through past issues and gave us solid advice on how to build a stronger, healthier organization. She was flexible and was able to tailor her content based on last-minute changes. It is a treat to work with someone who is both highly knowledgeable and deeply committed to the movement. We look forward to working with her again.  ~ Erin Matson, Executive Director, Reproaction

“We invited Nicole to lead a training on self care for our staff. Nicole provided useful information on self care and the differences between stress and burnout. She was also able to engage with staff who were on-site as well as participating at our satellite locations. Nicole is a knowledgeable advocate for women of color in the Reproductive Justice movement who are often not encouraged to practice self care.” ~ Melissa Garcia, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

“Nicole was contracted to support the development of an evaluation plan and materials to support the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Race to Justice Initiative, an internal reform process for advancing racial equity and social justice in order to strengthen our work and improve health outcomes for all New Yorkers. Nicole is a very skilled and thoughtful consultant to support planning and evaluation efforts. We received valuable support and deliverables to developing the evaluation process for our effort. Nicole communicated clearly about work products and questions in order to move her work forward. ~ Rebekah Gowler, New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Center for Health Equity 

“Reading [The Revolution Starts with Me!] self care zine was just what I needed to read today!!! Thank you so so so much for putting this together! I just posted it on the [Loyola University Chicago Empowering Sisterhood] Facebook Page. Hopefully they can use it at an upcoming gathering. That was amazing stuff!” ~ Nicole Cotto, Chicago, IL

“Ms. Clark is a wonderful advocate for women and has been a great resource for the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition. Working with her is a pleasure. She would be a great asset to any organization.”~ Kymsha Henry, Co-Director,Young Women of Color Health Advocacy Coalition

“Along with being an amazing sex educator, she’s a tireless advocate for self-care in a world and a movement where women often forget that change begins with themselves. I’m on her newsletter that comes with a free, fabulous self-care zine that walks you toward taking better care of your inner and outer self. I encourage everyone to sign up!” ~ Shelby Knox, feminist organizer and speaker

“Nicole is a highly intelligent woman who is deeply connected to the community. She has a passion for all aspects of health. As a colleague, I would recommend her services without hesitation. I look forward to working with her more in the future.” ~Chanel Jaali Marshall, researcher & sexual health educator, Jaali Co.

“Nicole is a force to be reckoned with! Her dynamic, informative, and motivational personality serve as major components of each client’s success. Working with Nicole is always a pleasure, you can depend on her to deliver positive and prompt feedback/results with a smile.” ~Andrea K. Ortiz, life coach and author

“Nicole is a skilled social worker, youth advocate, activist and sexual health educator. She brings an acute awareness of the importance of self-care and self-love to the reproductive justice movement. Her work is revolutionary and empowering.” ~ Leah Roberts, organizer, activist, & ally, New York Coalition for Reproductive Justice

“I had the opportunity to work along side Nicole Clark as a member of the Young Womxn of Color for Reproductive Justice Leadership Council  with the organization Advocates For Youth. Not only is Nicole smart and detail-oriented, she has a passion for her work. It’s hard to find people with a good work ethic like Nicole’s. I highly recommend her.” ~ Danielle Smith, executive producer, Exclusive Remedies Studio

“I just wanted to express my thanks for your participation in our If/When/How Regional Conference (2.11.12). Everyone told me how great it was to have a social worker on the panel [discussing policy work around reproductive health], and I agree that your perspective helped to make both the panel and the conference more diverse and more interesting.” ~ Mark Wheeler, If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice 

To hire Nicole for your next project or event, please fill out the client request form.