Nicole Siegel

Nicole Siegel is Senior Program Officer of Postsecondary Communications at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Siegel has always maintained the belief that quality education is a human right and is dedicated to helping transform and improve our nation’s educational system was previously the deputy director of education at Third Way. In this role, Nicole elevated Third Way’s efforts to focus the national higher education conversation on improving outcomes, particularly for low-income students, and works to expand that discussion beyond the higher ed wonks in our nation’s capital to the people it impacts every day across the country. Nicole managed and executed a multi-faceted advocacy effort to persuade policymakers and those who influence them that students and taxpayers deserve a better return on their investment by elevating the research and ideas of Third Way's higher education team and creatively deploying them to shape the federal higher education conversation on social media, on the Hill, through public and private events, and in the press to focus on student outcomes.

Prior to joining Third Way, Nicole managed her parents’ restaurant in the mountains of Western North Carolina, consulted with the Asheville Chamber of Commerce on a workforce development initiative to better connect local college students to career and professional development opportunities, and served as the communications specialist for Smarter Balanced, one of the two testing consortia for the Common Core State Standards.

She graduated with a B.A. in anthropology from North Carolina State University and holds a Master of Public Administration degree from American University.

Sub-specialties:
Public opinion research; quality, accountability & transparency in higher ed; higher ed comms policy; measuring impact; advocacy.