Courageously Committed
to Excellence

THE SAME PROBLEMS EXIST EVERYWHERE.

Carrying these stories with her, Nicole graduated from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) with a Masters in Social Work. After spending several years working within the municipality of Peel as a group facilitator, crisis intervention counsellor, and a crisis response worker in partnership with Catholic Family Services, Victim Services of Peel, Peel Children’s Centre, and Peel Mobile Crisis, Nicole developed a keen awareness of the GTA’s greatest public welfare needs.

Nicole saw one of her first public sector jobs as a teaching assistant with Peel District School Board in local summer school classes as the entryway she’d take to change it all. Once the work began, she quickly recognized the truth of where her professional life was headed. Far more interested in figuring out why her students couldn’t easily pick up on learning materials than strengthening the teaching methodologies that might improve their grades, Nicole shifted her focus toward listening to students as they spoke about their personal lives, obstacles to assignment completion, and any topic she thought might get to the root of the presumed issue.

HER WORK IS STRATEGIC ENOUGH TO CAPTURE SUBTLE NUANCE, YET IMPACTFUL ENOUGH TO CHANGE SYSTEMS.

By 2018, Nicole was being heralded as one of the Women Worth Watching® in Leadership for her work in advancing diversity and equity through organizational change. The following year, she assumed the position of Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS).There, she was able to provide systems leadership and was tasked with guiding 49 CEOs in navigating, and finding solutions for effective problem-solving. This role also allowed her to demonstrate her much sought after prowess by offering direct support on every aspect of organizational, executive-level and governance leadership function, all while maintaining an active partnership with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS). When called upon by MCCSS to support and lead sweeping provincial change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicole discovered her most emblematic efforts toward public sector crisis management and reconfiguration. In her tenure, she has also supported the launch and first phase of one of the province's largest child welfare’s system transformations, initiated by the Ontario Provincial Government.

Over the years, Nicole has continued to build her robust skills and expertise while facing steep adversity. However, when training based on the virtue of her survival eventually transformed into the ability to hold multiple complexities–a key competency in applying critical insights to strategy and support planning–her work contributions slightly shifted. 

As the founder of Firma Strategy Group, Nicole’s key area of specialty is strategizing integrative leadership from an EDI lens, accounting for employees’ holistic well-being as they engage with organizational and operational processes. Much like her approach to frontline services and management practice, Nicole’s leadership style is courageous and innovative. Her goal remains centred on bringing forth the corporate excellence found in most private companies to public spaces, coupling this with the inclusion of more sustainably agile systems that address disparities, effectively mitigating risk to communities and organizations. In collaboration with numerous public sector organizations, her core competencies and areas of expertise include:

  • Transformative organizational change

  • EDI strategy and implementation 

  • Professional training and adult education

  • Community engagement strategies 

  • Executive leadership coaching 

  • Strategic Governance support and training 

Supporting leaders towards organizational excellence continues to be Nicole’s driving force. Leaders under pressure to make quick changes that are sustainably receptive to all viewpoints benefit the most from the application of Nicole’s expertise. Centering her strategies around the needs of community and operating from a social justice lens, her efforts to build internationally equitable standards have made the prolific consultant, educator, speaker, and coach an invaluable resource to the globally conscious decision makers making big changes in public welfare.