Dr. Nicole Saulsberry is CAASE’s new Policy Director. She has extensive experience in governmental affairs and lobbying. Nicole began her career in government as a legislative liaison at Cook County and was promoted to Special Assistant to the President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, where she worked on special projects pertaining to workforce development, reentry initiatives for the formerly incarcerated, including trafficking victims. Nicole convened meetings with the Chief Judge’s Office of Cook County and Partners to Rescue Our Minors from Sexual Exploitation (PROMISE) to develop trainings on child sex trafficking. Additionally, she initiated and established a relationship between Cook County’s Public Defender’s Office and the National Immigrant Justice Center to train staff on child sex-trafficking and exploitation.
Nicole continued her career as a research and budget analyst with the Illinois House Democratic Research and Appropriations Committee from 2011 to 2019, where she prepared budget highlights for 15 state agencies, prepared bill analyses, served as committee parliamentarian, staffed human services committees, and conducted research for the Director of the House appropriations staff and the Illinois House Speaker. From 2019 to 2025, worked as the State Government Representative for the Sierra Club Illinois Chapter, where she lobbied, crafted environmental policy and informed legislators, stakeholders, and volunteer lobbyists of the Sierra Club’s legislative agenda. When asked about working for the Sierra Club, Nicole responded, “Working at the Sierra Club was an extension of my passion for human rights—the right of every citizen, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, economic status, and religion to live, work, and thrive in a safe environment.”
Dr. Saulsberry attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated with a double major in history and anthropology, and completed her master’s and doctoral degrees at Stanford University in African History. She received the Fulbright IIE Dissertation Fellowship to study in Eritrea, East Africa. She wrote a dissertation on Woldeab Woldemariam, a prominent Eritrean nationalist who was known as “The Father of Eritrea.” Her research continued in Rome and London.
Dr. Saulsberry is a self-described documentary buff and passionate traveler. Both of these activities describe her never-ending quest for knowledge and exploration.