Your Facilitator: Dr. Nicole Rawls

Dr. Nicole Rawls is a Black queer cultural strategist, anthropologist, and spiritual practitioner who guides individuals and organizations toward liberated futures by reconnecting them to the wisdom of their bodies, stories, and ancestral knowledge. With a PhD in Anthropology from Michigan State University, Dr. Rawls spent over 15 years in higher education as a professor and senior administrator, leading equity-centered initiatives, founding institutes, securing over $7 million in grants, and designing nationally recognized programs. She has held roles at institutions including Michigan State University, the University of Bristol (UK), Beloit College, and Brown University before leaving academia in 2021 to fully step into her own creative and strategic vision.

Now the founder of two entities—Embodied Futures Lab, her consulting and learning studio, and Dream Praxis Studio, her creative and storytelling space—Dr. Rawls has developed a signature methodology called Embodied Strategic Dreaming. This praxis-based framework blends critical analysis, somatic inquiry, spiritual insight, and liberatory strategy to help people and institutions reclaim their agency and craft bold, human-centered futures.

Dr. Rawls’ work bridges academic theory and embodied wisdom, offering everything from executive coaching and program design to astrology-based self-inquiry and ritual facilitation. She works with universities, nonprofits, government offices, and grassroots collectives—including The Digital Apothecary Lab at Northwestern University, Threewalls Organization, Harvard, Brandeis, Bath Spa University (UK), the City of Raleigh, and Bristol City Culture—to build ecosystems that are not only visionary but sustainable. Whether facilitating a leadership retreat, teaching a seminar on altars and ancestral connection, or developing a strategy roadmap with an executive team, her approach is always rooted in the belief that dreaming is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.