Nikki is a Research Lead on the Policy Team within the Research and Policy Pillar at Samuel Hall. Nikki has extensive experience with displaced communities, having spent five years working in immigration law and refugee advocacy providing direct services to unaccompanied children in the US at Catholic Charities and to refugees in Mexico at Asylum Access, among various other civil society organizations, shelters and nonprofits.

Prior to Samuel Hall, Nikki spent over two years working in peace and gender research as a consultant and assistant for organizations like the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, Search for Common Ground Iraq, Stanford University and New York University’s Peace and Research Education Program. With a main focus on forced migration, Nikki has also consulted as a researcher on the Mexican migrant experience in the US as well as that of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Her graduate research in Colombia explored climate displacement and the role of environmental defenders. Her work with migrant youth has also led her to advocate for children’s education and health equity.

Nikki sits on the board of a youth education organization, the Ghana Educational Collaborative, and volunteers with Hogs for the Cause, a local fundraiser for pediatric cancer in New Orleans, LA. She remains an affiliate researcher at NYU’s Peace Research and Education Program. Nikki holds an MSc in International Human Rights from New York University and a BA in Latin American Studies and Spanish & Portuguese from Tulane University.