PROFILE +
EXPERIENCE
Strategy + Negotiating
Unbiased Conflict Assessment
Private Conflict
Political + Violent Conflict
Cross - Sector Intelligence
Unconventional Methods
Rebecca has over 20 years of experience operating in complex roles that include neutral assessments of conflict, politics, philanthropy, strategic communication, negotiation, and behavioral intelligence. She has worked with military special forces, indigenous populations, private companies, political campaigns, elected officials, philanthropists, think tanks, boards of directors, NGOs, policy makers, media outlets, and tribal leaders.
Dr. Nicholson holds a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis & Resolution. Her work has been featured in The Miami Herald, Invictus Magazine, and Valka-Mir Human Security training material for US Military Special Operations Forces. She is an author, researcher, and educator in the root causes of violent and political conflict – explaining the dynamics at a personal level in order to dismantle them. Her textbooks are in over 500 libraries around the world.
Rebecca assesses a situation and then produces actionable results by discerning the hidden interests of each party. An expert-level critical thinker, she decodes subtle points of negotiation. An agile communicator, she distills multifaceted issues and presents them clearly and succinctly. Her cross-functional field experience was developed in West Africa, South America, Far East, MENA, US, and Europe on issues that included politics, human trafficking, legislation advocacy, child soldiers, and post-war trauma recovery, and violent conflict.
She works in varying capacities for organizations and private clients – helping them to go beyond containing or controlling conflict, to embracing it and leveraging its power to drive personal, relational, and team growth. She hosts The Conflict Doctor Podcast, which discusses the intersection between personal and societal conflict. Her professional experience is further detailed below.
GLOBAL
ISSUES
Human Trafficking
Pre-Conflict Indicators
Post-War Recovery
Tribal Engagement
Donor Engagement
Her work in the philanthropic field explored human trafficking in India, Europe, and the United States. Prior to that, Dr. Nicholson worked to counter post-war communal violence in West Africa through traditional tribal engagement efforts. Dr. Nicholson’s other areas of focus have been former child soldier reintegration, genocide prevention, and countering violent extremism. She serves as a consultant to nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations. She has published on issues of donor engagement and has an upcoming graduate level text on sustainable development.
HUMAN
INTELLIGENCE
Conflict Negotiating
Soft Power
Non-Lethal Tactics
Indigenous Systems
Conflict Mitigation
Dr. Nicholson serves as a Senior Scientist at a Human Security company that creates curriculum material and instructs pre-deployment Green Berets at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center on the use of nonlethal soft power tactics to augment Psychological Operations and Civil-Military Affairs. She has spent over a decade working in indigenous and contemporary systems of conflict resolution, ranging from West African Palaver to FBI armed hostage negotiating, and applies this knowledge to the private sector.
CRISIS + INFLUENCE
Dr. Nicholson began her communications work in a Governor's office of press, scheduling, and advance. Her experience includes ten years of political campaigning, fundraising, strategic messaging, and press relations. Since then, Dr. Nicholson has assisted private clients, attorneys, and businesses with message development, internal control of information, and external control of the narrative, especially in times of extreme stress. More significantly, in the immediate 48 hours following a crisis – when emotions are most volatile, and results are most crucial – Dr. Nicholson remains available to clients to talk out their fears and frustration to ensure no mistakes are made.
Personal Crisis
Strategic Messaging
Press Relations
Narrative Control
Litigation Positioning
SENSITIVE TOPICS
Violence Intervention
Moral Injury
Private Relationships
Inner Conflict
Spiritual Modalities
IMAGE+
ALIGNMENT
Sexual Conduct
Risk & Exposure
Policy Adjustment
Internal Compliance
Discreet Education
Dr. Nicholson is well versed in and facilitates public and private discussions on sensitive topics including GLBTQ issues, youth and workplace bullying, homophobia, inequality, and gender violence. She consults on these issues, and also incorporates supplemental spiritual methodologies into her work, which are highly effective as additional sources conflict intelligence gathering an assessment. These modalities are featured in her peer-reviewed volume Natural Healing as Conflict Resolution.
Individuals, Board Members, and Company owners are at personal, professional, and financial risk surrounding gender relations, largely due to them not understanding how their behavior translates to risk. Dr. Nicholson has extensive experience with this issue, and so with complete discretion and without the publicity of hiring a PR firm or labor lawyer specializing in sexual harassment, clients can have a thorough internal conversation to understand their personal and company context, with the ability to adjust their conduct and policy proactively.
