Nikole Nelson

Nikole Nelson

Frontline Justice

Panelist, Democratizing Legal Access: Mapping and Community Justice Workers in Action

Nikole Nelson is the founding CEO of Frontline Justice.  Prior to joining Frontline Justice Nikole was the Executive Director of Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska’s only statewide provider of free civil aid.  During her 25 years in the field, she worked to build community-led, people-centered justice models and to expand the scope of who can provide legal help including a groundbreaking launch of Partnering for Native Health, a Medical-Legal Partnership involving non-lawyer justice workers that won the 2019 World Justice Challenge. She also spearheaded reforming restrictions on unauthorized practice of law for justice workers in Alaska; these reforms were approved in 2022 by both the Alaska Supreme Court and State Bar Board of Governors.  Nikole is a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defense (SCLAID) and is a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Rural Justice Task Force.