Nicole Wilkins-Zott

Vice President

About Nicole

“Remember that it is all about the people.” – William S. White, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Nicole is an accomplished manager of complex, multi-year projects that require innovative approaches, thoughtful processes, and exacting standards. She has led successful efforts to redesign websites, rebrand initiatives and organizations, develop long-term messaging and strategy for national networks, and advance concepts and materials for annual meetings and convenings. She works with teams to identify strengths, build relationships, and solve problems throughout the life cycle of a project, establishing and sustaining clear work plans and strong internal communications to ensure that her teams reach key milestones on time, and with high-quality products in hand.

She is an expert in afterschool, out-of-school time and summer learning systems and networks, as well as their intersections with STEM and social and emotional learning. Before joining Collaborative, Nicole worked with the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnership, a member of the 50 State Afterschool Network, where she oversaw the development of policy and legislative campaigns and implementation of statewide budgetary and advocacy efforts.

Nicole is also an alumna of the national White-Riley-Peterson Fellowship Program, through which she worked to strengthen alignment between Massachusetts afterschool and summer learning opportunities and early education programs. She has a master’s degree in political communication from American University and a bachelor’s degree in political science, with concentrations in public policy and administration, from Northeastern University.

Eliza Panike

Senior Associate

About Eliza

“The world needs a sense of worth, and it will achieve it only by its people feeling that they are worthwhile.” ― Fred Rogers

Eliza has long understood that strong, vibrant communities are built by providing young people the tools and resources they need to succeed. For the last decade, she has built her career supporting government and non-profit organizations working to improve the lives of children and families. Most recently, she developed key messaging and content for delivering Common Sense Media’s ratings and reviews to parents and caregivers. Prior to that, she provided support to California’s First 5 system through program management, event planning, and public policy campaigns.

Eliza excels at project management and will be using her skills to create effective communications campaigns for her clients.

Born and raised in Northern California, Eliza currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in child development from San Francisco State University.

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