Today, we’d like to introduce you to Caroline Nickerson.
Hi Caroline, we’re so excited to have you on the platform. Before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
Hey there! I’m thrilled to be here and share a bit about my journey with you all. I’m Caroline, the Executive Director and co-founder of Florida Community Innovation (FCI), a civic technology nonprofit. My passion lies in empowering student innovators from various universities to create impactful social services technologies and engage in public service efforts that benefit our communities in Florida.
One of our flagship projects at FCI is the Florida Resource Map, a groundbreaking nonprofit digital platform connecting Floridians to vital resources like food banks and job opportunities. It’s amazing to see the support it has garnered from community foundations across the state, and we’re getting ready to scale the map! That being said, you can still add resources to it right now.
Alongside my work at FCI, I’m also pursuing a Ph.D. in Agricultural Education and Communication at the University of Florida. My time at UF has been filled with diverse projects, from climate change communication to research on pollinator-friendly plants.
Previously, I’ve had the privilege of working with SciStarter in various roles, including as Senior Program Director. It’s been an enriching experience collaborating on programs with federal agencies like NASA and NOAA, as well as global organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme. At SciStarter, I promote all things citizen science — real science that anyone can do. Find a project on SciStarter.org and turn your curiosity about the world into read scientific impact.
On a personal note, I’ve been deeply involved with organizations like the UF-VA Bioethics Unit and the Christensen Project, where we support homeless and underserved communities in partnership with UF Psychiatry. Additionally, in 2018 and 2020, I co-founded the Commission on Local Debates, organizing debates for local elections in Central Florida.
As a fun tidbit, I had the honor of being the 2019 Cherry Blossom Princess representing Florida and winning the grand prize scholarship at Miss Earth USA 2021 as Miss Louisiana Earth. It’s been an exciting journey, and I was recently featured in a children’s book about open science!
I’m looking forward to sharing more about my work and connecting with all of you. Thanks for having me!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Though I consider growing up in Florida to be a tremendous blessing, I know no one is exempt from the ramifications of climate change; I learned that firsthand when my family lost my mother’s stepfather — my Papa — in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael.
I have also experienced the impact of social issues in Florida; I had a stalker break into my apartment and harass me during my senior year of college. These experiences solidified my commitment to serve the people of Florida, working to create a safer climate in terms of not only climate change and environmental issues but also community wellbeing and the ability of all Floridians to thrive.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am so proud of the work I do at Florida Community Innovation. FCI conducts groundbreaking work connecting Florida’s citizens with trusted information and resources to navigate challenging times. We empower young trailblazers to build scalable social services technology for their communities.
We envision a Florida where everyone has equal access to trusted information, critical services, and rewarding careers. As a network of young professional volunteers and students, we engage in public service projects that move the needle on resource access and other key issues that impact Floridians.
We design and develop projects that have a media component (e.g., public health behavioral nudge campaigns), a data science component (e.g., data stories about social issues in Florida), and a public service digital product component (e.g., the Florida Community Resource Map, an interactive, public-facing portal through which Floridians can quickly and conveniently locate key resources available to them, including but not limited to healthcare, food and nutrition).
I am the proudest of the students at FCI. Right now, I am the executive director of Florida Community Innovation just as a volunteer; I prioritized paying the students first. Because we made that decision, we are able to give semester honorariums to deserving college students; support students as they create social services technologies that address their own lived experiences, including supporting victims of domestic abuse; and just generally watch the young people of Florida learn, grow, and thrive as they do public service.
I would like to share a testimonial from Meryem Yuksel, one of our students.
“Software development – my passion and the focal point of my academics at UF – has been a place of not only solace, but also empowerment, for me. At the end of my sophomore year in Spring 2020, I had finally ended a years-long abusive relationship and escaped a cycle of stalking, isolation, manipulation, and abuse. I was ready to become and feel better, and that’s when I found coding and online tutoring. I learned that with coding, I could always develop myself, no matter where I was, and the more developed I became, the more freedom and flexibility I would have.
I switched my major to computer science; I wanted that freedom, that sense of never losing hope. I also started teaching coding online and felt so lucky that I had looked for and found those opportunities. If I had never felt that I was stuck, I might have never looked for a way to get out, and for this reason I felt a lot of peace with my past and gratefulness for a new bright future enabled by my academic pursuits.
Now, in my senior year, I have spent the past semester enrolled in an experiential learning course with and interning for Florida Community Innovation (FCI). This nonprofit supports young innovators to pursue public service and create technologies to improve the lives of everyday Floridians. Using my software development skills, I chose to work on a feature that would help Domestic Violence Survivors who do not speak English have better access to resources, something I could be truly passionate about.
Whenever I reflect on how this chain of events progressed and the opportunities I have come across, I feel that I am so lucky, and my sense that things will turn out well in the end strengthens. These experiences taught me that academics and development – investing in yourself through education – mean hope.”
What were you like growing up?
As a kid, I always cared about the world around me and was interested in compassionately solving problems. I was obsessed with the Orlando Sentinel in elementary school (my local paper) and after reading a sad story about elder abandonment, demanded to be taken to the local nursing home after school to spend time with the people there. I enjoyed listening to people, especially people who might be invisible or forgotten, and I loved bringing people together.
To give another example, I can still remember the first time I learned about climate change, too, in elementary school. Though I can’t remember the source, I remember the place, and my feeling was pure shock. I rushed out of my elementary school library in a panic — the earth was dying! I organized the entirety of fourth grade (70 or so students) into a new organization, SOP (Save Our Planet), which we quickly amended to SOAP (Save Our Awesome Planet), a superior acronym. I still remember the feeling of hope that came from organizing with my peers. This potentially world-ending problem seemed less daunting when I was on a team.
Contact Info:
- Website: floridainnovation.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/floridacommunityinnovation/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070689379697
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/florida-community-innovation-foundation/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FLInnovation
