Venture Overview
Florida Community Innovation is a civic technology nonprofit focused on tackling Florida’s most pressing challenges through human-centric technology. Founder Caroline Nickerson is a citizen science and civic tech leader who empowers 50+ student innovators across multiple universities to build social service technologies and operate research and community programs, including the Florida Resource Map connecting Floridians to food banks, job resources, and more. She also serves as a program specialist at SciStarter and is a PhD candidate at the University of Florida studying climate change communication.
Website: floridainnovation.org
Venture Issue Area: Civic Engagement
Venture Headquarters: Orlando, Florida
Venture Founder
Caroline Nickerson is a citizen science and civic technology enthusiast. She is the Executive Director of Florida Community Innovation, where she empowers over 50 student innovators from more than five different universities to both build social services technologies and run research projects and community programs. This includes the Florida Resource Map, which promises to be the first-of-its-kind digital access point connecting Floridians to food banks, job resources, and more.
She is also a program specialist at SciStarter, the world’s biggest citizen science organization (where she manages corporate volunteer programs and partnerships with federal agencies), and a PhD candidate at the University of Florida (UF) studying climate change communication. She holds a Master of Public Policy from American University and graduated from UF with a Bachelor of Arts degree, double-majoring in Chinese and History.
Fun fact: She won the grand prize scholarship at Miss Earth USA in 2021!
