Nicole Pumphrey has dedicated her career to fostering cultural understanding and promoting inclusion through education and workforce development. She joined the Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians as Director of Strategic Partnerships in 2014 and currently serves as the Deputy Director, where she leads the organization’s external engagement strategy, building collaborations and advocating for the valuable contributions of immigrants to the region’s social stability and economic prosperity.
Nicole earned her B.A. in French and Korean Studies and an M.S.Ed. in Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Welcoming Center, Nicole supported global initiatives at Temple University’s Fox School of Business at and at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on creative funding strategies to expand opportunities for first-generation and underrepresented students to travel abroad.
She currently serves on the board of the Women’s Opportunity Resource Center, a CFDI promoting economic self-sufficiency for women and their families through entrepreneurship and the Executive Leadership Team of the City Philadelphia’s Workforce Professionals Alliance. She has served as the President of the Pennsylvania Council for International Education, advocating for global competence in policy and practice throughout the Commonwealth, as a member of the PA Department of Education’s International Education Advisory Council, on Mayor Jim Kenney’s Transition Team for Immigrant Affairs, and in 2016 she received the Rising Star Award from Drexel University’s Institute for Strategic Leadership as a Fellow in the Leading for Change program.
Nicole is a lifelong Philadelphian, who has lived in France and Korea, but sees her deep roots in the region as a valuable asset, motivating her to invest in making her hometown a place where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, both newcomers and long-time residents.