Nicole completed her doctorate in Culture, Communities and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before HGSE, she served as the Director of Early College Awareness Programs and Hiring Committee Chair at a new, small, public high school in Brooklyn, NY. Simon holds a B.S. in Human Development and an M.S. in Design & Environmental Analysis, both from Cornell University. She received the 2007 Global Kids Urban Educator Fellowship, which supported her work developing a mentoring program for young men of color, and the 2011 Radcliffe/Rappaport Doctoral Policy Fellowship, which supported her work on educator evaluation at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She can be reached at: nss140@mail.harvard.edu.