Nicole Williams Beechum is a Senior Research Analyst on the Noncognitive Team at the UChicago Consortium. Nicole’s initial work at the UChicago Consortium focused on the transitions to high school and post-secondary opportunities, including projects on college match among Chicago Public Schools graduates, the International Baccalaureate Programme in CPS, and Freshman OnTrack. With her current team, Nicole is co-organizing a national network focused on equity for historically marginalized students, the Building Equitable Learning Environments (BELE) network. Nicole’s dissertation work also explores the factors that lead to success for Black boys during their freshman year of high school. Her research interests include teacher-student relationships and how classroom environments contribute to student success, academically and developmentally. Nicole was in the second cohort of the Surge Institute’s fellowship designed to empower leaders of color in the field of education. Outside of work, Nicole is an avid reader and people watcher; and likely, the only person still listening to the Hamilton soundtrack on a regular basis.
