Nina Cole

Background

About Nina Cole

As a campus recreation professional with experience teaching group exercise classes in collegiate recreation and the private sector since 2014, I am passionate about community engagement and creating spaces and programs grounded in empowerment and inclusion. My doctoral educational in cultural studies closely informs my vision of health and wellness in multiple ways: by increasing equitable access, by fostering community across different constituencies, and by incorporating a diversity of music and dance styles to promote intercultural understanding. As an instructor, educator, performer, and researcher, I am unique in that I not only bring a depth of knowledge about creative cultures and exercise science, but also possess the ability to translate that knowledge to diverse populations in engaging and motivating ways. Before working in membership services, I was as lecturer in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at UC Davis. Following an outcomes-based programming model, my course creation and assessment style are student-centered and scaffolded to support the successful achievement of learning outcomes. I also served as Assistant Editor for the peer-reviewed journal Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, and authored research-based papers. Prior project coordination experience includes community-engaged work (Center for Sacramento History; dissertation research) and technical work as a mission operations coordinator in the field of aerospace (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory). My unique trajectory and diversity of experience coalesce around passions for engagement, community-building, and creativity in the service of holistic wellbeing and intercultural understanding.