Nicole Carlsburg has dedicated her career to empowering and advocating for women and families and, as Executive Director, she leads the Barbara Lee Family Foundation’s nonpartisan efforts to advance women’s political equality. With experience on a broad range of national and local campaigns, Nicole brings years of strategic insight to the Foundation’s work, including seven years on Barbara Lee’s senior leadership team managing strategic nonpartisan grant-making initiatives that expanded women’s participation in American politics and contributed to the Foundation’s nonpartisan research. Previously, Nicole worked for the Family Equality Council, the national organization working to ensure equality for LGBT-headed families. There, she managed the organization’s grant seeking and donor communications, designed and implemented resources and programming for LGBT parents and their children, and advanced issue advocacy campaigns such as California’s marriage equality initiative (Prop 8) and overturning Florida’s LGBT adoption ban. Nicole is a 2013 Fellow of the New Leaders Council, a national progressive political entrepreneurship training program for young professionals, and graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and drama.