Nicole is an LA-based designer, architect, urbanist, and planner with decades of experience working with neighborhoods and people facing climate risks. Her work centers on design excellence for mitigating and adapting to extreme weather events at different scales, and attempts to address the uneven distributional impacts of climate change. Nicole’s projects range from community placekeeping, master planning, regenerative infrastructure, and climate policy to household design.
As the founding principal of the non-profittinkercraft: Design & Advocacy Group, she has led design and development initiatives throughout Southern California towards the development and implementation of equitable and climate-just work. Her current research, a collaboration between UC Merced, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, is centered on improving our understanding of wildfire resilience through planning and developing support resources for under-resourced communities most vulnerable to wildfire risks.
Nicole has taught and lectured at UCLA, Occidental College, and Cal Poly Pomona, among other institutions. She holds a Master of Architecture from Yale University and a PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA.