Nicole “Soul” Creary, LMSW, MPA

CEO & Founder

Soul is the President, CEO, and Founder of Soul2Soulz, Inc. She created Soul2Soulz, Inc. in 2007 under the former name Institute for Motivating Adolescents and Nourishing Insight-IMANI, Inc. responding to the issues facing youth in underserved communities. Adolescents feel powerless, and so do their parents and educators at times when trying to support them. Soul2Soulz, Inc. provides in-school day and after-school programming facilitating workshops, lessons, and trainings that engage, enlighten, express, and empower youth to live up to their full potential.

Soul has been working in the social service and field of education for over 30 years. She has completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, a Master’s degree in Social Work, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration. She is also a Licensed Master Social Worker.

Soul is a graduate of the National Urban Fellows, MPA Executive Leadership training program. As a part of her education, she participated in a fellowship as a Special Assistant to the Board of Education, Chief of Staff. The duties of this job required her to assist with providing strategic development, policy creation, conflict mediation in school relations, and new program development for the Attendance and Truancy department. She also assisted with the development of the district-wide strategy to re-enroll out-of-school youth and decrease dropout rates, this was also my capstone/thesis focus.

Soul has over 20 years’ of experience as a Program Director supervising in-school, day and after-school programs as an employee of community-based organizations with NYC DOE school partnerships. She directed successful after-school programs, Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention programs, and a Beacon Community Center. Soul provided program development, managed budgets (which combined was over a million dollars), supervised staff, led staff trainings, and created staff training modules. She worked closely with school principals, guidance counselors, social workers, and teachers to support and strengthen the day school programs. Receiving promotions required that Soul manage co-located community-based, in-school, after-school programs, and managed about 75 staff members, servicing over 800 students. She utilized Social Work Interns to provide counseling to students and AmeriCorps members to provide tutoring and enrichment support.  This allowed her programs to provide students with more individualized attention while staying within the budget. Soul was also responsible for developing and creating community partnerships while improving program outcomes.    

As a Director of Student Services (Assistant Principal), it was her job to improve and develop the discipline and student service protocol and procedures manual. Soul’s approach was always inclusive, the development of protocol and procedures included students, staff, and school leaders of a charter organization from multiple campuses to synthesize our approach to providing student support. She created and provided training to teachers and school staff on effective ways to support our students and improve school culture.

Soul is also trained in IIRP Restorative Practice model and is a Restorative Practice Educator, she utilizes this training as a part of all her program models, to create positive school cultures.

Education is a passion for Soul, she is currently an Adjunct Professor at Medgar Evers College School of Social Work and has been an Adjunct at Brooklyn College, LIU, and City Tech.    

Soul also has an expertise in writing and directing issue-based films tackling challenges relevant to society and utilizes her films and other issue-based films as a catalyst for social-emotional development.