Nichole Harken

Educator/Teacher

Dr. Harken serves as the Internship Director for the Department of Communication and Media and the co-director of UNI’s Cornerstone course. Her publications include: the Media Career Guide for Bedford St. Martin’s Press and Next Step for Macmillan, both which prepare students for jobs in the 21st century. Nikki teaches a range of courses for the department, including courses focused on speaking, writing, research, and leadership. She finds her students to be exciting, engaging, and entertaining and likes to be innovative and inventive in the classroom, creating mutually beneficial learning environments where her students can be creative, engaged, and produce high quality work. Her goal is to help students find their purpose and passion, to nurture those things, and help them realize 'it's not how smart you are, but how you are smart.' Nikki has received numerous awards including six “Apple Polisher” awards from UNI students, the United Faculty Above and Beyond award, and received a Panther First award for service excellence. She has served as an honorary sideline coach for men's basketball, women's basketball, and football and has been nominated for the Liberal Arts Core Excellence in Teaching MWOne Advising, and UNI Above and Beyond awards. Nikki has a strong belief in serving her community, which she sees as her duty and delight to foster the creation of systems that encourage personal responsibility and success and disrupt systems of inequity. She is the recipient of a Veridian Community Engagement Fellowship (2016) and has certifications in Green Dot, Mental Healthy Allyship, and QPR. Education Ed.D. Higher Education: Student Affairs, University of Northern Iowa M.A., Communication Education, University of Northern Iowa B.A., Communication/Theatre Arts Education (7-12) & Elementary Education, University of Northern Iowa Research Interests Dr. Harken's research is rooted in university/college exit programming - essentially, what students experience (knowledge, emotional, social) as they leave the university and how to develop systems that better serve students during their last moments in higher education.

The power of education!

Endings don't have to be stressful if we approach them with knowledge, self-reflection, and an open heart.