Nicole (Cole) Jon Sievers, MSW, LCSW, is an innovative problem solver, speaker, licensed clinical social worker, educator, social justice advocate, and co-author (with Norene Gonsiewski) of the award-winning It’s Your Mind: Own it! A Manual for Every Teen. For over thirty years, she has worked with youth and the systems serving them. Her diverse roles have included therapist, teacher, educational district consultant, Outward Bound instructor, and forensic consultant.                         

Nicole is the founder and executive director of Stand for Courage (standforcourage.org). This bullying prevention program employs stories, creativity, and popular culture to recognize students leading bystander action to eradicate bullying. In 2014, the SFC school-based program was honored by the American Psychological Association with a Visionary Award. In 2017, an academic study reported that victimization decreased by 69 percent when schools implemented SFC bullying-prevention practices. Building on her bullying prevention work, Nicole also served as a producer for the IndieFlix documentary The Upstanders, about the bystander’s role in bullying prevention.

Likewise, Nicole is the co-founder of Little Mercies (littlemercies.org), a nonprofit creating channels for simple kindness and for the distribution of essentials to ease the suffering of children living in the world’s harshest conditions. The current focus of Little Mercies is migrant children awaiting court dates in U.S. border towns and Burmese refugee children in Thailand. An important component of Little Mercies is youth supporting youth. Little Mercies’ backpack program has delivered close to 3,000 backpacks filled with essential items. Many of these have been collected by youth and filled by youth.

An avid supporter of the arts, Nicole served on the Seattle Music Commission from 2014 to 2019. She also is an Advisory Board member of the Origins Project Foundation, which strives to address the challenges of the 21st century through public events with thought leaders.