As Vice President of Global Public Policy for Government Affairs, Nicole leads a team of experts that drive Cisco’s policy agenda to bolster ICT adoption around the world and to enable Cisco’s purpose to power an inclusive future for all. Prior to joining Cisco, Nicole spent more than 20 years in the government, corporate, legal, and nonprofit sectors. In addition to senior roles at Google, Meta, and LinkedIn, her background in government is wide-ranging. After beginning her career as counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives, she became a foreign law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa before joining the office of U.S. Senate Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) as floor counsel. For five years of the Obama administration, Nicole was the deputy director for legislative affairs to then-Vice President Joe Biden and later served as a special assistant to President Barack Obama in the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs. Nicole grew up in the Bronx, New York and received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, Master of Arts from Columbia University, Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Master of Studies (LLM equivalent) from the University of Oxford.