Nicole Southard is a Consultant with the World Bank's Social Policy Department, where she supports community and local development approaches, climate finance, and programming in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Previously, she spent five years at USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, supporting responses to major crises including the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye and Syria and protracted emergencies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan, among others. Her research on humanitarian health in conflict settings has been published in The Lancet. Nicole holds an M.A. in International Policy from Stanford University and a B.A. in International Relations from Claremont McKenna College.