Nicole Hendrickson is the Community Outreach Program Director for the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners.  She has been in the role for only 6 months and she shared some exciting new initiatives that will help the ever more diverse residents of Gwinnett County feel included in the workings of their county.  Ms. Hendrickson described the new Citizens Academy, a 10 week program where business owners, county residents, and others come together in a class of 30 to learn more about how the county government works.  Meeting from 6 – 9 pm on Thursdays, they learn about a new branch of county government each week, from public safety to transportation to water resources.  She also described the International Diversity Festival, designed to bring together public safety officials and community members who may be from countries where there was no trust of those officials.  The goal of the program is to help residents understand how public safety works in the county and to build trust between the community and officials.  Despite being a one-woman office, Ms. Hendrickson described several initiatives that will help county residents understand their county government better and participate in it more effectively.