About SomeContext
SomeContext was founded in 2019 by Nicole during a pivotal time in her career. At the time, she was teaching Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University and doing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) consulting during the Trump administration. One of the courses Nicole taught was a general education course in Critical Thinking, designed to equip students with tools to understand and unpack the complex ways systemic racism manifests.
Nicole taught this course for four years, finding fulfillment in supporting students on their critical thinking journeys during an era of widespread misinformation. Through her consulting work with various organizations across sectors, Nicole recognized that many people lack the opportunity to address issues of systemic racism. She realized that for significant change to occur, people across generations, identities, incomes, industries, and titles needed guidance on how to tackle complex issues related to race, racism, power, and privilege both in the workplace and in everyday life. Providing space for reflection, learning, and critical thinking enabled people to better understand themselves and the world around them.
SomeContext was created to support individuals and organizations with reliable data, information, and dialogue, empowering them to advance an agenda focused on collective liberation.
About Nicole
Nicole (she/her) is an activist-scholar, educator, and equity and inclusion strategist based in San Francisco, CA. She currently serves as the inaugural Director of Equity and Inclusion at Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA) in Berkeley, California. In this role, Nicole is building and leading SAHA’s Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) department. She supports the development, measurement, and implementation of REDI goals, plans and executes training, and collaborates with SAHA’s internal team to ensure racial equity and inclusion are embedded across the organization.
In her previous role as a Senior Consultant and Assessment Advisor at The Justice Collective (TJC), Nicole helped define and build the guiding principles and frameworks for TJC’s organizational research and assessment strategies. She led and project managed the delivery of high-quality Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) services to client-partners across various sectors, with a particular focus on affordable housing developers.
As a former professor in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, Nicole co-founded the Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) minor program. This program offers students critical approaches to addressing intersections of race and public policy, as well as mixed race, mixed heritage, and transracial adoptee identity development and activism. Nicole also served on the San Francisco State Academic Senate, where she contributed to the Student Affairs Committee (SAC), developing and promoting an equity-centered lens for decision-making and policy writing.
Nicole’s master’s thesis, Food Rituals: An Entree into Multiracial Family Culture, explores how food rituals contribute to blended cultural practices in multiracial families. Her academic and professional interests span Ethnic Studies, Critical Mixed Race Studies, and Food Studies. Nicole holds a Master of Arts in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, with specializations in Critical Mixed Race Studies and Food Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with minors in Black Studies and Business Communication Writing.