Nicole Mullen received her BA in literature and writing with a concentration in creative art in learning from Lesley University in Cambridge Massachusetts. She has worked for Boston Public Schools since 1998. She comes to Boston Arts Academy via The Mary Lyon K-8 School, where she worked for five years with students with social and emotional as well as behavioral concerns. During those five years she took on many different roles including, paraprofessional, student teacher, after schoolteacher, drama teacher, yearbook designer/coordinator, playwright and director. Nicole Mullen has worked with the Learning Center Team at Boston Arts Academy (BAA), a public high school for the visual and performing arts since 2003. She received her M.Ed. from Cambridge College in Special Education and is certified in both Elementary Education and Special Education grades K-12. Nicole Mullen has served as BAA Boston Teachers Union building representatives, on the BAA leadership team, governance board, board of trustees, Co-chair of the 10th grade team and Special Education Department Chair. She is also an elected Boston Teachers Union Executive Board member and Delegate to All Affiliated Bodies as well as a member of the BTU contract negotiating team. Additionally she is a co-chair of the BTU Inclusion Organizing Committee. Nicole Mullen has presented at several local and national conferences, on topics such as differentiation, inclusion, SEL strategies in the classroom, professional learning communities, Universal Design, professional development, Creating a Thoughtful Election to Work Agreement, BAA’s “Habits of the Graduate”, digital portfolio, literacy and advisory. Some of these conferences include the Coalition for Essential Schools (CES) Institute in Denver, CO, Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, MA and the Center for Secondary School Redesign (CSSR) conference in San Diego, CA. Nicole has also worked with the Boston Arts Academy Summer Institute, the Boston Arts Academy Center for Arts in Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, The BTU Leadership Conferences, and Boston’s Plan for Excellence in the Boston Teacher Residency Program. In 2011 she was awarded as an Education Policy Leadership Fellow from the National Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) sponsored by Northeastern University and firmly believes in their mission to create “A society that uses all of its resources effectively to provide an equal opportunity for all children and youth to learn, develop and become contributing citizens of our democracy. This demands leaders with the ability to tear down barriers and unite diverse stakeholders”.