Dr. Nichole Argo is the Founder and Executive Director of the TogetherUp Institute. Dr. Argo has long worked at the intersection of science and practice. From 2018-2024, she served as the Director of Research at Over Zero, a nonprofit working with leaders to build resilience to identity-based division and violence.

Prior to that, she led research/ implementation teams on national and international projects, such as: the unrolling of the gacaca process in Rwanda; messaging and outreach related to HIV-prevention in Kenya; the efficacy of a paralegal program for tribal leaders in South Africa; and, motivations for political violence in Africa, the US, and Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In 2022, as a pilot project designed to counter local-level polarization and distrust and build local belonging and engagement, Dr. Argo founded the Needham Resilience Network, a model for institutionalizing relationships across diverse leaders so that they may bridge local silos, tool up in skills to communicate across difference, and engage in a process for co-creating inclusive solutions to local problems.

Nichole’s recent publications include: The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in the US, The Science of Polarization and Insights for Bridge Building, and several essays on how to communicate across differences that involve sacred values. She sits on the Permanent Monitoring Panel for Conflict and Polarization at the World Federation of Scientists. She has published in leading political science and psychology journals and holds degrees from Stanford, MIT, and the New School for Social Research.