Nicole LaJeunesse is a community organizer, learning steward, and long-arc practitioner rooted in lived experience of disaster and recovery. A survivor of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, Nicole brings an embodied understanding of what it means to live through catastrophic loss—and to remain committed to community long after the immediate crisis has passed. Nicole’s work centers on tending the relational and learning infrastructure that allows communities to stay resourced over time, especially attentive to the human realities of recovery: the exhaustion that settles in when leadership concentrates in too few hands, the quiet grief that lingers beneath rebuilding efforts, and the deep need for spaces where people can speak honestly, listen deeply, and remember they are not alone. At NewStories, Nicole serves as Program & Learning Steward for Re-Storying Disaster in program and organizational support for Regenerative Responders and the Fire-Affected Communities Collaboratories, helping steward learning spaces where practitioners and community leaders can reflect together, share lived experience, and build capacity through relationship. Her work is grounded in care, consistency, and a commitment to strengthening the connective tissue that allows insight, courage, and mutual support to circulate across places and roles. Nicole serves as Executive Director for Regenerating Paradise and Administrative Director for Paradise Arts, Theatre & Culture Hub, using her passion for storytelling to help local nonprofits craft compelling grant proposals and fund vital community projects. She holds a Master’s in Cinema Studies from San Francisco State University.
Why her voice matters: Nicole demonstrates through lived experience of surviving the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history that true recovery is not simply the replacement of what was lost but an ongoing journey of collective healing that nourishes both people and place, requiring attention to the exhaustion when leadership concentrates in too few hands and the quiet grief lingering beneath rebuilding efforts. By serving as learning steward for Re-Storying Disaster and helping steward the Fire-Affected Communities Collaboratories, Nicole shows that communities facing catastrophic loss need relational and learning infrastructure allowing them to stay resourced over time rather than just immediate crisis response that disappears when media attention fades. Her commitment to remaining in Paradise long after the fire and tending the connective tissue that allows insight, courage, and mutual support to circulate proves that regeneration begins within relationship and that communities navigating disaster need spaces where people can speak honestly, listen deeply, and remember they are not alone as they move forward into futures that cannot yet be fully seen.
