Nicole Banister

Nicole is a globally-minded, collaborative professional with 8 years of experience implementing community development projects in 10 countries. Adept at cross-cultural communication and integrating into diverse international communities, Nicole is passionate about leveraging the existing resources of marginalized communities to enact sustainable empowerment initiatives. Nicole currently serves as the Partnerships Associate at Atlas Corps in Washington, DC, where she liaises with American civil society, business, and government stakeholders to host emerging international social change leaders for a yearlong professional Fellowship. Prior to this, she worked for Grassroot Soccer in Cape Town, South Africa, facilitating sports-based adolescent health trainings for implementing partners across the African continent. Nicole served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa where she worked alongside local counterparts to develop literacy and public health interventions for 300 youth. Nicole speaks 3.5 languages and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Culture and Politics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. While at Georgetown, she coordinated a rehabilitation program for incarcerated men by organizing university students to teach weekly classes at jails in Washington, DC. Through these experiences, Nicole has gained expertise in partnership building, training development and facilitation, cross-cultural communication, and youth and community capacity building