Dr. Nicole Rawls (formerly Truesdell) is an Organizational Death Doula, Cultural Strategist, and Storyweaver who guides individuals, organizations, and movements through the transitions, endings, and reinventions that are required to make new futures possible by learning to strategize with their dreams.

Nicole holds a PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University, specializing in race, racism, citizenship, and the nation-state. She spent over fifteen years teaching and leading in higher education at Michigan State University, the University of Bristol (UK), Beloit College, and Brown University before leaving academia in 2021 to build something that could not exist inside institutions committed to upholding the colonial project. She is the founder of the Embodied Futures Institute and the creator of Embodied Strategic Dreaming — a praxis-based methodology that integrates structural analysis, cultural context, and embodied intelligence to support collaborative visioning and transformative change. She has advised boards and executive teams, directed multi-million dollar program portfolios, facilitated strategic retreats for organizations ranging from small leadership teams to convenings of 500+, and guided organizations through the full life cycle of programs with a focus on structures, policies, and practices that are genuinely human-centered.

Her work moves beyond institutional boardrooms and strategy sessions as Nicole is also a poet,  performer, and public intellectual whose practice spans peer-reviewed scholarship, long-form essays, podcasts, a Patreon community, and live convenings. She is currently completing her first book, “Reclaiming My Wild: A Modern-Day Marronage Folktale.”

As a speaker and facilitator, Nicole brings her experiences and practice as an anthropologist, astrologer, artist and death worker into every room. She is available for keynotes, organizational facilitation, strategic retreats, and panel conversations on topics including strategic dreaming, narrative strategy, organizational transition, Black and Queer futurity, and embodied leadership.