Nicole Rawlinson is the spouse of an active duty United States Navy submariner and mother to two children who make up one amazing military family.
Nicole grew up near Cleveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie, enjoying the parks and recreational opportunities local to Cuyahoga County. Her love for the national parks was ignited as she and her husband traveled across the country on their first permanent change of station move together a decade ago. Along their path from Saratoga Springs, New York to Bremerton, Washington, they visited several national parks, monuments, or recreation areas and truly experienced the incredible resource the park service was to their family and to the nation.
Nicole’s education and professional experience has been rooted in designing and delivering public programming and informal education experiences for families in library, museum and interpretive spaces while developing meaningful partnerships and connections. She believes that valuable learning experiences can happen anywhere, and access and inclusion to those experiences are imperative to building strong and resilient communities.
Nicole currently works as the Blue Star Outdoors DEPLOY Fellow, developing a suite of outdoor programming to support military families across the country through outdoor experiences, and connecting families to the outdoors through fishing in national parks. She is also a 2021 Rethink Outside Fellow. She holds a bachelors of arts degree from Cleveland State University and a Masters of Library and Information Science degree from Kent State University. Nicole is a charter member of the NPCA Veterans Council.