Rooted in Transition: Building Military Family Resilience Through Nature

Nicole Rawlinson is a Navy Spouse of over 12 years and has worked to support communities, youth, and families throughout her career in non-profits, museums, libraries, and foundations. She found her passion for connecting her work to the outdoors through her experience as a military spouse and leads with her passion for stewarding relationships and connecting communities through creative approaches to service and impact. Nicole currently manages a portfolio of programs that support connecting youth and communities to inspiring outdoor experiences through education and exploration in national parks as the Senior Manager of Youth Programs at the National Park Foundation. Previous to her current role, she served as an inaugural fellow of the Blue Star Families DEPLOY Fellowship program (2021-22) and program manager (2022-23), where she built and delivered a program to connect military families to the outdoors through a partnership with the National Park Service supporting families across the country, which has since grown exponentially. In 2022, she was an inaugural Rethink Outside fellow, a program focused on supporting emerging leaders in shifting the narrative of outdoor access from nice to have to a right and necessity for all through storytelling and has also served on the NPCA Veterans Council to ensure the voices of the veteran and military community are heard to increase advocacy, access, and connection to public lands.