Dr. Nicole Norfles

Dr. Nicole Norfles is the Director, Program Practice and Innovation at the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE).  She facilitates COE’s STEM Community of Practice; is Co-Pi on multiple NSF grants; directs the U.S. Department of Education 2016-2018 Financial Aid training; directs the COE Onboarding Professional Development; and facilitates the TRIO STEM Chicago Collaborative.

Nicole previously served as the Education Program Officer with the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, as Policy Consultant with Casey Family Programs, as Special Assistant to the founding President of COE, and as Fellow in the PELL INSTITUTE.  She co-taught a South Africa study abroad course with Michigan State University, an online Leadership course at Drexel University, and courses in educational foundations, leadership and supervision at the George Washington University. Dr. Norfles has presented at numerous national and international conferences, and served on multiple Boards.

Dr. Norfles' research has focused on the expansion of educational opportunity for low-income and first-generation college students both nationally and internationally to include pre-college, undergraduate and graduate college persistence issues, technology use and access, student financial aid and general indicators of educational opportunity.  She received her doctorate from The George Washington University.