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Nicole “Nikki” Bowman Mills (nee Braley, born May 12, 1971) is an American businesswoman, writer, editor, publisher, public speaker, community advocate, and media personality. As the founder and president of New South Media, Inc., a multimedia publishing company headquartered in Granville, West Virginia, she serves as the editor-in-chief and publisher of several award-winning magazines, including WV Living, Morgantown, WV Weddings, and Wonderful West Virginia.

Early Life
Nikki Bowman Mills was born on May 12, 1971, to parents Sharon Holcomb (nee Acree) and Joe Braley in Saratoga Springs, New York, where her father was stationed at the U.S. Navy base. After her father was discharged from the Navy, her family moved back to their native West Virginia. Her parents divorced in 1974, and she, along with her mother, moved in with her paternal grandmother, Ella Braley Legg, in rural Clay County in West Virginia.

From an early age, Bowman Mills was surrounded by people who were advocates and champions of Appalachian heritage. Nikki’s aunt Deloris Braley was married to renowned musician John Morris, who, with his brother David, formed the Morris Brothers. As a child, she attended the Morris Family Old-Time Music Festival that later inspired the creation of the Vandalia Gathering. The National Endowment for the Arts named Morris a 2020 National Heritage Fellow.

In 1975, Bowman Mills’ mother married Ronald Holcomb, an electrician at the DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia, and they moved into a trailer in Two Run, West Virginia, then later to Procious. In 1981 her family moved from Clay County to Kanawha County. She attended Elkview Junior High School and Herbert Hoover High School, where she graduated with honors at the top of her class in 1989. As a student, Bowman Mills won several creative writing awards, including the opportunity to study with American novelist Denise Giardina as she worked on the sequel to her 1987 novel Storming Heaven.

When Bowman Mills turned 18, she legally changed her name from Nikki Lee Braley to Nicole Lee Holcomb. Inspired by reading National Geographic magazine in her youth, Bowman Mills wanted to be an international travel writer. She took a heavy course load, worked as a resident assistant and as a night shift guard, and, in three years, graduated from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Slavic Studies and a minor in Russian. She was the first in her family to graduate from college.

Career
Upon graduating from college, at the age of 21, Bowman Mills married Gregory Bowman in August 1992, joining him in Chicago where he was a law student at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. In 1994, the couple moved to Danville, Kentucky, where he clerked for federal judge Pierce Lively and she began a freelance writing career. Upon returning to Chicago a year later, she attended DePaul University, where she received a writing fellowship to serve as the associate editor of Richard Jones’ literary journal Poetry East. She received her master’s degree in writing in 1997. She worked at The Union League Club in Chicago as the managing editor of The State of the Union. In 1998, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at Catholic University of America and wrote and edited the alumni publication CUA Lawyer.

In 2004, Bowman Mills, her husband, and their two children moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where she worked at Mississippi College School of Law as director of communications and Gregory Bowman served as a law professor. In 2007, she became the editor of Mississippi’s statewide lifestyle publication, Mississippi Magazine.

In 2008, Bowman Mills moved back to Morgantown, West Virginia, to launch her own media company, New South Media, Inc. Her first publication, WV Living, became West Virginia’s first statewide lifestyle magazine. She worked from her rented townhouse, writing most of the stories, managing subscriptions and newsstand distribution, working with a freelance graphic design contractor, and taking the photography herself. She delivered 8,000 copies of the first issue of WV Living all over the state in November 2008 from her minivan with her children in tow. In spring 2009, she launched her company’s second brand, WV Weddings, which quickly became the bridal bible for the state. In October 2011, New South Media’s bi-monthly city publication, Morgantown magazine, joined the line-up. In 2012, Bowman Mills continued to grow New South Media by launching a custom publishing arm that created travel guides, custom magazines, cookbooks, and coffee table books for a myriad of clients. Her first custom magazine, created to celebrate West Virginia University’s momentous move from the Big East to the Big 12 Conference, The Ultimate Sports and Travel Guide to the New Big 12, was distributed nationally in 2012. WV Focus, a statewide small business and policy magazine was published in January 2014 and remained in publication for two years. In 2015, New South Media was chosen to oversee the editorial of the state’s oldest magazine, Wonderful West Virginia, a West Virginia Division of Natural Resources monthly publication. This was a momentous accomplishment for Bowman Mills, who had grown up reading Wonderful West Virginia and credits the magazine for her early love and fascination with printed publications.

Bowman Mills and Gregory Bowman separated in 2014 and divorced in 2015.

Bowman Mills became a vocal advocate for small businesses and woman-owned businesses, speaking around the state of West Virginia on topics of entrepreneurship and the importance of supporting small businesses.

In 2015, she was honored as one of the country’s Top Women in Media by Folio, becoming the first West Virginia woman to be selected. In 2018, she was selected by SCORE as one of 100 small businesses nationwide as an American Small Business Champion.

New South Media successfully competed for the federal contract in 2016 to produce 72 issues annually of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Resource Guide, including one issue a year in Spanish. The company oversaw the printing of nearly 1 million copies annually of the guides, which were distributed nationwide.

In 2018, Bowman Mills partnered with Buddy Butler to launch a new custom content creation division to the company called Narrative by New South Media.

In June 2019, Bowman Mills married architect Michael Mills, principal of Mills Group. That same year, they launched a new business together called Revision, harkening back to the Turn This Town Around initiative, and purchased 10 warehouse buildings on Main Street in Granville, West Virginia, creating New South Square. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they transformed the buildings into an office space, a restaurant and shop, and an industrial event space called Silo in the Square. New South Media moved its headquarters into one of the buildings, and Appalachian Mercantile General Store and Cafe, owned by Nancy Bruns and Joe Woods, moved into another. An architectural salvage company, Appalachian Salvage, is slated to open in 2022.

In addition to serving as the president of New South Media, Inc., Bowman Mills serves as a public speaker and appears regularly on podcasts, television, and radio shows.

Transformative Journalism
When Bowman Mills created New South Media in 2008, she embraced the concept of socially responsible transformative journalism. With that in mind, her media company launched an economic development initiative in 2014 called Turn This Town Around. Her concept was to craft a collaboration of private, nonprofit, and public entities focused on providing resources, guidance, inspiration, and accountability for struggling communities as they embarked on programs of transformation. She reached out to the West Virginia Community Development Hub as a partner. Readers chose two West Virginia towns for the inaugural year of Turn This Town Around: Grafton and Matewan. The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation provided around $100,000 to each community to fund a variety of projects aimed at creating sustainable change. Whitesville, West Virginia, and Ripley, West Virginia, were chosen as 2015’s Turn This Town Around towns. Turn This Town Around led to successful launches of new businesses, town improvement and beautification projects, and the creation of farmers’ markets and outdoor recreation projects.

Also in 2014, Bowman Mills created an annual program to honor West Virginia women who are instrumental in building a better state through their work, volunteerism, or activism. The West Virginia Wonder Woman awards have gone to women such as Appalachian Regional Commission Co-Chair Gayle Manchin, actress Jennifer Garner, Huntington fire chief Jan Rader, Charleston, West Virginia, mayor Amy Goodwin, U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito, community activist Amy Jo Hutchison, and many more. Each year, these women, who are nominated by previous Wonder Women, are featured in WV Living and honored at a luncheon.

Bowman Mills has originated other community initiatives as well, including The Struggle to Stay Campaign that became a radio series investigating the mass exodus of young people from West Virginia in partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she rallied the community and spearheaded the creation of the first outdoor dining parklet in downtown Morgantown, West Virginia.

Awards
2020	WV Kids Count Economic Well-Being Champion of Children Award

2019	West Virginia Hospitality and Tourism Association’s Excellence in Tourism Entrepreneurship Award

2018	SCORE’s American Small Business Champion

2016	West Virginia Division of Culture and History’s Excellence in Support of the Arts Award

2015	Folio’s Top Women in Media

2014	U.S. Small Business Administration’s Women-Owned Small Business Champion Award

2014	2014 Class of Leadership West Virginia

2013  Preservation Alliance of West Virginia’s Historic Preservation Media Award

2011	Women’s Business and Training Center’s 2011 Pocahontas County Woman Business Leader of the Year Award

2011	The State Journal’s Generation Next 40 under 40.

West Virginia Division of Tourism’s Star of the Industry Awards
 * 2019, Best Print/Photography Layout
 * 2018, Best Print Article
 * 2014, Best Internet/E-Magazine Article
 * 2014, Best Print Photography Layout
 * 2013, Best Print Photography Layout
 * 2012, Best Print Article
 * 2010, Best Print Article