Our Story

Because it’s 
not your career,
it’s your life.

THE TEAM

• Nicole Williams

  CEO

  Nicole Williams

  CEO

  Inquisitive and strong-willed, Nicole has been fascinated with the interconnectedness between career and women’s empowerment since she was a child. After earning her BS in Social Work from the University of British Columbia, she worked as a Career Counselor for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) where she supported the job search of a woman who had been sex trafficked, and unbeknownst to her at the time, would go on to greatly influence the important work she’s doing today.

  In 2006, Nicole founded WORKS, a multi-million-dollar career brand that inspires and educates professional women to achieve career success. With three best-selling books under her belt, she’s earned a reputation as one of the country’s preeminent career development experts and has been called on as a regular contributor for The Today Show, Good Morning America and national news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CNN. After reaching these career pinnacles, Nicole took several years to prioritize her growing family. She is enthusiastic about bringing her decades of career expertise and know-how to a platform that will support all women to pursue a professional path that gives them purpose, joy, and fulfillment.

• Lily Paulovic

  Managing Director

  Lily Paulovic

  Managing Director

  With a history of building businesses from the ground up, coupled with her own experience re-writing her life story, Lily is expertly poised to drive organizational growth for ELLA WORKS Foundation as its Managing Director. At 21, she began her career as one of the founding employees of a New York-based auto company. In this role, Lily uncovered her natural skills in business development, marketing, and strategic partnerships, and was essential in growing the business to a multi-million-dollar operation with an exceptional community reputation. Through curiosity and self-awareness, she discovered that her innate artistic and creative needs were being fulfilled by the challenge of building successful businesses.

  The feeling of personal fulfillment that surfaces from aligning your career goals with your innate skills is something Lily believes all women deserve to learn and experience. When she’s not serving as Nicole’s right-hand woman, strategizing and implementing growth initiatives, you can find her volunteering with local community groups, expressing herself creatively through art, or hiking with her dog, Opie.

• Lola Faleti

  HR Director

  Lola Faleti

  HR Director

  With first-hand experience being supported by programs like ELLA’s, Lola’s background and professional experience serve as a constant source of inspiration for the team and women served. As a teenager with hopes and dreams of making it in NYC, she quickly experienced financial struggles that led to an unfortunate life-altering experience. But through tenacity, determination, and support from a variety of resources, she was able to bounce back and start her career as a Role Model Manager for College Nannies, Sitters, and Tutors in Brooklyn. Since then, Lola has worked in fashion and retail—helping launch the first Cover Girl store in Times Square—started her own coaching business, Lola Inspires, and ultimately landing a role with Accenture’s HR team.

  In addition to her HR experience, Lola has spoken at several events for Girls Education & Mentoring Services (GEMS) and has emceed the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center’s Annual Breakfast of Legends. Lola is thrilled to join the ELLA team as HR Director, in a role that perfectly blends her career expertise with her lifelong commitment to create a safe space for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.

• Nicole Steen

  Resume Writer + Career Strategist

  Nicole Steen

  Resume Writer + Career Strategist

  As a proud nonconformist, Nicole has been making up her own rules since she was a kid — and with great success. Though her educational background follows the traditional trajectory (earning a Master’s in business psychology), rethinking the way we do things has always been Nicole’s favorite activity. In 2012, after failing a handful of job interviews, Nicole started her own resume writing business. With the increasingly competitive job market, she knew the importance of standing out and being different; so true to form, Nicole developed a unique resume writing and design strategy that has proven extremely successful — 100% of her clients (over 600 to date) receive interviews and job offers! Deeply intuitive and innately creative, she is able to effortlessly capture the essence of her clients’ stories to deliver impactful, authentic, and attention-grabbing resumes. Embracing the fact that career journeys are rarely linear, Nicole is perfectly equipped to support the women we serve in telling their stories in a way that will have employers begging to work with such strong women.

Board Of Directors

• Andrew Clendinneng

  Treasurer

  Andrew Clendinneng

  Treasurer

  Charged with an unrelenting desire to effect real systemic and societal change, Andrew has an impressive 20-year track record of raising hundreds of millions of dollars to advance the philanthropic missions of the organizations he’s proudly served. He is currently the Director of Development for the Daily Bread Food Bank, a non-profit dedicated to identifying and implementing long-term solutions to poverty while providing food security programming. His previous fundraising and development work focused on championing cultural transformations around philanthropy to raise money for youth, higher education, and healthcare. Equal parts brain and heart, Andrew is expertly skilled in identifying the mechanisms needed to strategize, implement, and scale funding pipelines with the goal of elevating society to the level he knows we can achieve. At his core, Andrew is committed to human rights work that is aligned with the UN’s sustainable development goals that strive to remediate the imbalances created by politics, money, gender, and societal problems so all people have an equal shot at peace, prosperity, and inclusion.

• Kimmy Scotti

  Secretary

  Kimmy Scotti

  Secretary

  Kimmy Scotti is a founding partner at 8VC where she focuses on consumer and healthcare investments. She also is co-founder and executive chairman of the women’s health and wellness company Monthly Gift. Prior to 8VC, Ms. Scotti served as the Executive Director of Business Development & Operations at a NY Family Office where she incubated and invested in many businesses. Most notably she co-founded a direct-to-consumer healthcare company that has helped millions of Americans afford their prescription medications. Ms. Scotti has also been responsible for the development of several other ventures including WORKS by Nicole Williams, a multi-platform lifestyle brand dedicated to supporting young professional women in their quest for career success. When Ms. Scotti was still in high school she founded Mimz New York, a fashion jewelry line that was sold at Bloomingdales and featured on the hit television show, Project Runway.

  Ms. Scotti serves on the Advisory Board of Venture for America, the Board of Directors for Breakout Foundation and on the Senior Advisory Committee to Cornell Tech at Cornell University.

  Ms. Scotti graduated with a degree in Production Management; Fashion & Related Industries as well as Advertising & Marketing Communications from The Fashion Institute of Technology.

• Nicole Williams

  President

  Nicole Williams

  President

  Inquisitive and strong-willed, Nicole has been fascinated with the interconnectedness between career and women’s empowerment since she was a child. After earning her BS in Social Work from the University of British Columbia, she worked as a Career Counselor for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) where she supported the job search of a woman who had been sex trafficked, and unbeknownst to her at the time, would go on to greatly influence the important work she’s doing today.

  In 2006, Nicole founded WORKS, a multi-million-dollar career brand that inspires and educates professional women to achieve career success. With three best-selling books under her belt, she’s earned a reputation as one of the country’s preeminent career development experts and has been called on as a regular contributor for The Today Show, Good Morning America and national news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and CNN. After reaching these career pinnacles, Nicole took several years to prioritize her growing family. She is enthusiastic about bringing her decades of career expertise and know-how to a platform that will support all women to pursue a professional path that gives them purpose, joy, and fulfillment.