With her undergraduate and Master’s degrees in the mental health field, Nicole has always been motivated to understand why people do what they do and how they become who they are. Starting in 2011, Nicole stepped full-time into the world of higher education in the Residence Life department at Grand Canyon University. In her 8 years as a Resident Director, she honed a specialty in leadership development. For nearly a decade, Nicole managed several teams, oversaw and mentored hundreds, and ran large-scale committees on hiring, training, and development.
As the Options team grew in 2017, Nicole was brought in a few times a year as an independent consultant to offer leadership development content to staff meetings. As Nicole’s expertise in this area grew, she was brought in to do similar teaching in various industries, including real estate, hospice, home health care, finances, and tax management, training for med students, nonprofits and churches, etc.
In 2019, Nicole transitioned away from the world of higher ed, and then in January of 2020, she began working for Restoration Counseling as a storywork counselor and life/relationship coach. During this season, she continued consulting with Options for Senior Living and other small businesses. In the fall of 2022, Nicole was brought on in a fuller capacity with Options as the Director of Engagement and maintaining her work with Restoration Counseling.
As Director of Engagement, Nicole now regularly supports the Options staff by helping them to their own self-awareness, grow in their emotional intelligence, improve communication skills, seek to better understand how others are wired, etc. By doing this, she aims to help them engage on a deeper level with their own stories, the stories of their co-workers, and with colleagues and clients, knowing that who you are personally does impact who you are professionally. Nicole comes alongside the preexisting OFSL value that taking a company to the next level means creating competency in policy and procedures and investing in each employee’s professional and personal development as a leader. Nicole brings her passion for helping people develop intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence so that Options employees are better equipped to sit with families and clients amid significant transitions and can navigate complex emotional and relational dynamics. She steps into a company that profoundly values wisdom, empathy, and compassion and hopes to magnify that for each person who comes into contact with an Options employee.