About Some Context
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 is the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of SOME CONTEXT, a systems change consulting firm and newsletter.
Nicole most recently served as the inaugural Director of Equity and Inclusion at Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA) in Berkeley, California. In this role, Nicole built and lead SAHA’s Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI) department. She supported the development, measurement, and implementation of REDI goals, planned and executed training, and collaborated with SAHA’s internal team to ensure racial equity and inclusion were embedded across the organization.
In Nicole’s former role as a Senior Consultant and Assessment Advisor at The Justice Collective (TJC) she helped to define and build out the guiding principles and frameworks for TJC’s organizational research and assessment strategies. Nicole led and project managed delivery of high quality Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) services to client-partners across industries including public, private, and non-profit industries, with an emphasis on affordable housing developers.
In her past role as a professor in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, Nicole co-founded the Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) minor program which offers students critical approaches for addressing the 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 sat on the Student Affairs Committee (SAC), a standing committee that reviews, writes, and advocates for campus-wide policy specifically related to students. In this role Nicole developed and socialized an equity-centered lens that was used for decision making and policy writing within the committee.
Nicole’s master’s thesis, Food Rituals: An Entree into Multiracial Family Culture, examines the role of food rituals in establishing blended cultural practices in multiracial families. Nicole’s academic and professional focus cross the boundaries of Ethnic Studies, Critical Mixed Race Studies, and Food Studies. Nicole received her Master of Arts degree in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University with specializations in Critical Mixed Race Studies and Food Studies. Nicole holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in Political Science and minors in Black Studies and Writing: Business Communication.