Nicole Bergeron

Nicole Marie Bergeron is a founder, philanthropy advisor, and writer whose work sits at the intersection of housing, faith, public policy, and institutional change. She is the founder and CEO of Aslan Housing Foundation, which develops innovative housing solutions that help ministry leaders remain in high-cost communities across the United States.

Nicole serves on the boards of Sojourners, the Jacques M. Littlefield Foundation, and Moonshot edVentures, and previously served on the board of the Tony Patiño Fellowship. Her recent essay, “Philanthropy’s Drag Coefficient: When Process Costs More Than Failure”, published in Nonprofit Quarterly, examines the hidden costs philanthropic processes impose on nonprofit organizations and their leaders. She writes more broadly at Glitter Canon, where she explores leadership, philanthropy, faith, AI, and the social sector.

She recently completed C’est What? My Idiotic Quest to Learn French. And Why People Do Hard Things for Fun., a memoir about language, curiosity, persistence, and the peculiar human appetite for choosing difficult things on purpose.

Nicole earned a B.A. in International Relations, with a minor in Intellectual History, from UC Davis; an M.P.P. from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy; and a J.D. from UC Law San Francisco. She studied abroad in Togo as an undergraduate and has been following intellectually interesting detours ever since. At the most recent UC Law SF Patiño selection dinner, she interrupted Bill Keane to such good effect that she expects to be seated with retiring Chancellor & Dean, David Faigman, at the kids’ table in 2027.