Nicole Love Hendrickson was elected Chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners in 2020, making her the first African American to hold this position.
Nicole has spent more than 2 decades in the public service arena. Upon arriving to Gwinnett County in 2006, she devoted her time and career serving the community in a variety of capacities.
When Nicole is not busy changing the world, her best days are spent with her husband Keverne and their 10-year-old son, Kaden who attends 4th grade at Camp Creek Elementary School. They reside in unincorporated Lilburn.
Meet Nicole
Nicole’s heart for service goes beyond her workday. She is active on several local, statewide, and national boards, including the Atlanta Regional Commission, Metropolitan North Georgia Water District Board, Gwinnett Board of Health, Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia’s Policy Steering Committee. She also serves at the national level as Vice Chair of the National Association of Counties’ Community, Workforce, and Economic Development Committee. She is a proud member of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett County. She was also instrumental in launching the inaugural Local Leaders Housing Action Committee, which is responsible for developing a region-wide plan to address the Atlanta region's housing affordability challenges.
Community Service
Nicole Love Hendrickson has been recognized as Engineering Georgia’s 100 Most Influential Women in Georgia, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Power 100: Most Influential Atlantans, and Georgia Trend named her one of the state’s 100 Most Influential Georgians. She was the recipient of Congressman Hank Johnson’s Trailblazer Award, the Gwinnett Chamber’s Public Service Award, and a Public Sector Award recipient by the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC).
Awards
Nicole has more than two decades of career experience in the Public Service sector spanning areas of education, non-profit, philanthropy, and government. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Rhode Island and later went on to complete her Master’s Degree in Social Work with an emphasis on Community Planning from the University of Georgia.
Nicole planted her roots in Gwinnett County in 2006 and quickly became a part of the network of change makers.
She co-led the strategic grassroots and community planning efforts during her 8-year tenure with the Gwinnett Coalition for Health & Human Services. She inspired civic involvement though her training program--the Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadership Institute which boasts more than 600 alumni.
In 2015 she was appointed by Chairman Charlotte Nash of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners as the founding Director of the Community Outreach Program that she established from the ground up. In this role, Nicole commissioned Gwinnett County Governments’ first ever comprehensive platform that allowed diverse citizens to interact with local government launching programs such as the Gwinnett 101 Citizens Academy, Dinner & Dialogue and the Gwinnett Youth Commission – all of which were nationally recognized as best in class for citizen engagement.