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Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC. In this role, she leads SPARC’s work to advance openness and equity in education, which includes a robust state and federal policy program, a broad librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for open education professionals. Nicole joined SPARC in 2013 to develop and launch a program on open education. Under her leadership, SPARC’s open education program has been a driving force behind numerous state and federal policy achievements, which include securing $35 million in appropriations for a pilot grant program and establishing an open licensing policy at the Department of Education. Nicole was also instrumental in organizing opposition to the Cengage/McGraw-Hill merger. Since 2020, Nicole has also played a significant role in organizing the Open Education Conference, the open education community’s largest annual event. You can follow her on Twitter @txtbks