Nicole Blalock is a mixed-heritage scholar activist whose research and creative work incorporates her interests across broad fields. Her research background is largely interdisciplinary, exploring contemporary society and how its policies and practices influence learning and achievement. She is also interested in issues of representation, identity, and the tensions of tribal memberships, sovereign nation-to-nation politics, and decolonization.

Nicole’s creative space includes experimentation with multidisciplinary pieces. Most recently, she has begun a journey using art to explore historicity and herstory of a mixed-Indigenous paradigm, building from her work while an academic scholar. Nicole continues to develop and enrich her understanding of critical issues in society through the lens of her academic, professional, and personal experiences.

Currently, Nicole is developing an interdisciplinary digital history project on the intersections of mental health and Indigenous policy exploring the Indian Medical Service’s Mental Hygiene Clinic of the 1930s. She continually pushes the boundaries of her research praxis, incorporating multiple and novel methods to demonstrate existing trends and elucidate approaches to support Indigenous educational and schooling success.

Nicole received her dual M.A. in Native American Studies and Ph.D. in School Organization & Educational Policy from the University of California, Davis in 2013. In 2015, she completed a two-year Fulton Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Educational Equity in Diverse Schools with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.