Nikki Gaskin-Capehart is a change agent and champion for building generational wealth in black families. She has over 25 years of experience initiating and leading innovations in the public, private, non-profit and business sectors. Nikki is a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, where she lives with her family and leads the Network of Gifted Consultants, NGC Team a boutique consulting, recruitment and referral firm.
The NGC Team offers its clients the ability to work directly with Nikki and a team of consultants or to seek her assistance in helping to select the best consultants for their unique needs.
She has strong entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial knowledge and skills, helping to coach professionals in leadership development with a focus on emotional intelligence. Nikki has honed an instinctive grasp of relationship dynamics as a cornerstone of success in the organizational, community and systems-level change process.
In her most recent career role, Nikki was appointed by Mayor Rick Kriseman to serve as the City of St. Petersburg Director of Urban Affairs. While there, she cultivated over two dozen partnerships, and developed a department that focused on four areas of investment. Opportunity creation, nurturing neighborhoods and families, connecting through cultural affairs, and being a catalyst for commerce.
One of the areas that she was most passionate about was the My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper Initiative. A local initiative linked to the Obama Foundation designed to support and enhance the lives of African American young men and women and their families. As a part of which Nikki pioneered annual girl’s enrichment and women’s empowerment conferences.
Prior to working with the City, Nikki worked with Pinellas County Urban League, Congresswoman Kathy Castor, Partnership for a Healthier Pinellas, and Congressman Jim Davis. She also was a small business owner for many years while serving in those positions.
Nikki holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and a Master of Liberal Arts Degree with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. She is a graduate of Leadership St. Petersburg, National Urban Fellows America’s Leaders of Change, Tampa Bay Public Leadership Institute, Whitney M. Young Jr. Emerging Leaders, and the Tampa Bay Chapter of the New Leaders Coalition.
Nikki has a strong record of community service currently serving as President of the National Pan-Hellenic Council of Pinellas County, a board member of the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions, and on the St. Petersburg College Women on the Way Advisory Committee.