Work with Nicole: Speaking 

Speaking is one of my favorite ways to spark reflection, share lessons from the field, and invite people to think more deeply about how they show up—in their work, leadership, and communities.

Whether I’m joining a panel, conducting a training or workshop, delivering a keynote, or participating in an interview, I bring my full self: a licensed social worker, researcher, evaluator, and Black woman committed to Reproductive Justice and equity in action. My talks are honest, values-driven, and rooted in both lived experience and professional insight.

I speak to the nuance of doing meaningful work in systems that are often resistant to change. I hold space for audiences to feel seen, challenged, and encouraged to take aligned action—especially those working in community, advocacy, education, and philanthropy. You won’t get rehearsed talking points. You’ll get strategy, clarity, and care.

Looking for a speaker who can ground your audience in truth, strategy, and care? 

Here are a few ways I show up:

What This Is:

Speaking engagements can be structured as 45-minute to 90-minute sessions, depending on event size and type.

Past speaking engagements include national conferences, local coalitions, and academic spaces.

What This Can Include:

  • Keynotes: Centering equity, Reproductive Justice, and values-driven work in real-world settings

  • Panels: Sharing perspective while listening deeply and contributing meaningfully

  • Workshops: Facilitating interactive, reflective spaces for learning and unlearning

  • Guest lectures or trainings: Bridging research, practice, and lived experience

  • Media and podcast interviews: Speaking plainly and powerfully about strategy, community, and care

Ideal Fit:

I’m a good fit for conferences, coalitions, collaboratives, academic spaces, and community-centered events that value equity, reflection, and action—not just optics.

My speaking interests:

  • Reproductive Justice: History and core principles; practical applications to current work, stakeholder buy-in and support

  • Design Thinking: Curriculum/workshop/program development, applying to social work and social justice frameworks

  • Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: Evaluation theories (Culturally Responsiveness, Youth, Feminist, Empowerment, Community Collaborative & Participatory),  outcomes and impact evaluation, evaluative thinking & capacity building

  • Community Participatory Research: Principles, building meaningful relationships between research institutions and communities, shared decision-making, capacity building

  • Movement Building and Intersectional Approaches: How social justice movements intersect, youth-adult partnerships, stakeholder engagement, strengths-based thinking for communities of color

  • Self, Organizational, and Community Care: Designing a self care plan, organizational self care, and self care as a tool for community empowerment and resistance

My Most Requested Speaking Topics

From Clearing Ambiguity to Addressing Power Dynamics: Getting Your Staff on board with Reproductive Justice 

The Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework offers a powerful way to navigate intersecting social justice issues beyond pro-choice/pro-life debates. But moving from theory to practice—especially within organizations—can be challenging.

Staff may struggle to understand how RJ fits into their specific roles, especially in top-down environments where introducing RJ can surface tension around power and decision-making. This session helps participants build clarity, language, and strategy around RJ—not just as a set of values, but as a framework for organizational culture and practice.

Through interactive discussion and activities, participants will:

  1. Explore how RJ reframes health and rights work

  2. Identify barriers to staff engagement and power dynamics

  3. Learn strategies for applying RJ in their role—from admin to executive leadership

Reproductive Justice as a Social Work Value 

Reproductive Justice (RJ) challenges social workers to go beyond clinical neutrality and embody self-determination, dignity, and equity in every level of practice—from direct services to systems change.

Rooted in the NASW Code of Ethics and the RJ framework, this session explores how social workers can apply an intersectional lens to reproductive health options, abortion access, sexuality, parenting, and more. It also addresses common barriers—including policy constraints and personal discomfort—that limit how we show up for clients navigating these deeply personal decisions.

Participants will:

  1. Learn how RJ connects to core social work ethics and values

  2. Practice applying intersectional analysis to reproductive health, parenting, and sexuality

  3. Explore techniques for advocating for RJ at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels

  4. Learn about Social Workers for Reproductive Justice and how to get involved

Design Thinking, Research & Evaluation as Tools for Collaborative Change

Research, evaluation, and design thinking are often treated as separate strategies—but when combined intentionally, they become powerful tools for equity-centered, collaborative change.

In this session, we’ll explore how to connect behavioral theory, participatory research, and culturally responsive evaluation within a design thinking framework. You’ll learn how to engage staff, participants, and community members as co-creators—building programs that are grounded in evidence and responsive to lived experience.

Participants will:

  1. Walk through a design thinking process tailored to social impact work

  2. Identify relevant behavioral theories to guide program design

  3. Assess organizational readiness for participatory research and evaluation

  4. Learn accessible data collection and analysis techniques to inform strategy

To book me as a speaker, fill out the speaker request form, and check out my past speaking events.