Episode 14: Ms. Nicole Vick Brings Black Girl Magic to the Classroom While Teaching About Public Health

Ms. Nicole Vick is a public health professional, educator, and civic leader committed to women’s issues and social justice issues.  Talking with her is like visiting with a longtime friend. 

She shares with us how she juggles being an adjunct instructor in higher education, a full-time job and being the mom of an adult daughter.  She has 12 years of experience as an adjunct professor and currently teaches public health at a college in Los Angeles, California. She also  has taught at a few other institutions online and in person. 

Ms. Vick just published her first book, Pushing Through: Finding the Light in Every Lesson. California Senator Holly J. Mitchell, the first to introduce and name the CROWN Act, wrote the foreword and said this “in reading Nicole’s powerful accounts of family migration, teen parenting in Trojan-land and self-discovery, I am reminded of the many stories I have heard my entire life. The poignant difference is – Nicole did not just survive, she is thriving. Her storytelling is an important reminder to Black women that we have a collective responsibility to ourselves to save ourselves – first. Our battles with self-image, sexism, racism are toxic and yet through Nicole’s life example, we can and do make it.”

Some main points from Nicole’s story:

• Nicole speaks about community activism, public health and racial equity.
• Her belief that lived experiences, along with work experience and schooling shape what and HOW one teaches.
• Making the connection between professional work and teaching by utilizing the COVID pandemic as a way to demonstrate to her students that they were living public health history right now.
• Points about how to bring some “black girl magic” to the classroom, where many of my students tells her she is their first black teacher. 
• Overcoming hardships after a teen pregnancy upon her freshman year in college by remaining persistent to achieve personal professional goals.

Find more details on how to connect with Nicole by visiting my webpage at https://www.drpatsanders.com/

And here: https://www.instagram.com/nicoledvick/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-d-vick/

https://www.nicoledvick.com/

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