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Our Dynamic Team
Our team is comprised of a broad array of evaluators, researchers, community psychologists, and community activists, who are passionate about creating a socially just world. As community transformation catalysts, we seek to confront injustice and inequity that may exist at all levels within and around communities. We firmly believe that the community must be at the heart of identifying the solutions to address their challenges and create their desired reality. By building trust and authentic relationships with our partners, we help communities see the big ideas and also help them implement those ideas to achieve their dream or vision. It is our greatest joy to participate in this work and spread hope and healing to all.
Dominica McBride, PhD – CEO & Founder
Dr. Dominica McBride is a leading thinker in the realm of community psychology, community healing, and collective transformation. As a champion of Culturally Responsive Evaluation and a grassroots advocacy strategist, she has dedicated her work to building the capacity of communities to create the reality they desire and deserve.
In 2013, Dr. McBride founded BECOME with the belief that communities should be at the forefront of realizing their visions of thriving communities. Drawing on her experience in program development and evaluation projects in Arizona, the Chicago area, and Tanzania, Africa, she recognizes the power of culturally responsive evaluation as a tool for positive change.
With a background in community psychology, Dr. McBride has made significant contributions as a consultant, program director, adjunct faculty member, and therapist in the field. Her expertise and insights have made her a sought-after speaker and trainer for communities, coalitions, and organizations across the nation. She has also been recognized and honored with a range of awards for her outstanding work, including the Supervisor of the Year Award from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the Marcia Guttentag Promising New Evaluator Award from the American Evaluation Association.
Dr. McBride holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology with a specialization in Consultation from Arizona State University. Aside from her professional accomplishments, she embraces the joy of motherhood and finds fulfillment in witnessing her two remarkable children flourish.
Shemeka Woodson, MA, CHW – Transformative Operations Navigator
Shemeka, a nonprofit management professional, and a collaborative community change agent with a passion for people empowerment, human capital and serving marginalized populations. She carries eight plus years of administrative and managerial experience with a versatile skill set ranging from data entry, project management, program management and evaluation, grant writing, branding/marketing and social media management.
A Houston, Texas native, she began working in the non-profit sector as an affordable housing advocate in social services management for low-income residents and families in South Texas. In 2016, she served on the City of San Antonio’s Community Action Advisory Board as a Private Representative. Shemeka is also the owner of Colorful Conscience LLC, a socially conscious business branding purposeful work to IGNITE change, INSPIRE communities and IMPACT the next generation using collaborative alliances within the public and private sector. Her mission is to address the Social Determinants of Health by creating bridges for people powered solutions that ignite social equity and change.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from St. Mary’s University (San Antonio, TX), a Community Health Worker certification from the State of Texas, a Non-Profit Leadership and Management graduate certificate and pursued her Masters of Public Administration from The University of Texas in San Antonio.
Gabriela Garcia, PhD, Community Advocate & Co-Creator
Dr. Garcia is driven by a commitment to advocate for and nourish communities that have been affected by poverty and injustice.
She has over 10 years of experience in evaluation and research design, qualitative methods, project management, theory of change and logic model development, and culturally responsive evaluation. She has led or co-led various mixed-method evaluations for a variety of federally- and foundation- funded STEM and health education initiatives. Some of her areas of evaluation, research and technical assistance work have included: curriculum development, after-school programs, diversity and equity-focused initiatives, and broadening participation in STEM projects.
She is active in presenting her research and evaluation work at professional conferences (e.g., American Evaluation Association, Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment, National Latino Psychological Association) and recently co-published the article “Situational Awareness and Interpersonal Competence as Evaluator Competencies” in the American Journal of Evaluation. She has a PhD in Educational Psychology with a Program Evaluation specialization from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is fluent in Spanish and English.
Casey Solomon-Filer, MA – Community Advocate and Co-Creator
Casey’s passion for Culturally Responsive Evaluation stems from interest in how distributions of power influence the everyday lives of individuals and communities, and how evaluation can serve as a tool to help redistribute power towards a more just world.
Her background is in program evaluation, international development and education, teaching, social anthropology, and visitor studies. Her evaluation experience includes programs on civic engagement, training, informal learning, STEM, and conservation. Much of her evaluation projects have focused on youth programs. After living in Senegal, Gabon, France, and Yemen, Casey is delighted to currently reside in the Chicago area.
She has a Master of Arts in Program Evaluation from Michigan State University and another in Arab Studies with a concentration on Culture and Society from Georgetown University.
Larry Washington, PhD – Community Advocate and Co-Creator
Larry Washington is a doctoral candidate in Education Policy Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Illinois in 2015, and a master’s degree in Education policy in 2017. During his graduate career, Larry has worked with Dr. Stafford Hood, Dr. Rodney Hopson and Dr. Cherie Avent on various evaluation projects. His work has been presented at professional conferences such as the American Evaluation Association (AEA), Emergent Voices in Evaluation (EViE), and Scholarly Consortium for Innovative Psychology in Education (SCIPIE). Beyond research, he has volunteered as an External-Evaluator for Champaign Community Unit School District 4, helping social workers and parents with logic models, data collection, and analysis.
Shantell E. Jamison, MA – Community Transformation Engagement Cultivator
Hailing from Chicago’s South Side, Shantell E. Jamison, MA, has witnessed firsthand not only the disparities that exist in the city regarding race relations, but also the many voices that continue to go unheard. So in 8th grade she decided to do two things: 1) be active in ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to speak regardless of how loud, how poor, how passive their voice was and 2) be heard herself.
Shantell has committed her life to ensuring that marginalized communities aren’t forgotten. Upon earning her BA from The Missouri School of Journalism, Shantell joined NPR’s Vocalo 90.7FM where she worked for a number of years. There, she profiled community members living in underserved communities, providing a platform for their issues to be heard.
She moved on to work for EBONY Magazine, serving as Senior Editor of Love, Relationships and Lifestyle. As a Gottman Level 1 Certified Life Coach, Shantell has appeared on various media outlets and panels throughout the country. Shantell currently serves as BECOME’s interim Community Transformation Marketing and Outreach Specialist and holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from APUS.
Keisha Farmer-Smith, PhD – Senior Partner Advocate
Keisha has partnered with organizations dedicated to supporting safe, healthy spaces for youth for 18 years. In addition to consulting on culturally responsive evaluation and other projects for BECOME since 2016, she has extensive youth development experience. Her work experience includes supervising program outcomes and impact at Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago, serving as Director of Programs at Family Focus Inc., managing gender-specific after school programs at Alternatives, Inc., and coordinating educational and vocational services for Illinois Department of Child and Family Services youth at UCAN.
Keisha has won awards for her Outstanding Service to Children including as a 2018 University of Illinois 2018 Civic Engagement, Community Service, and Community Organizing (CECSCO) honoree. She has graduate degrees in Counseling and Urban Planning, and a PhD in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Illinois.
Dara Lewis, PhD – Senior Partner Advocate
Dara is guided by the principle of using research and evaluation as tools for building capacity within communities and increasing knowledge by drawing on cultural strengths.
She also serves as the Assistant Director for Loyola University’s Center for Research on Self-Sufficiency and adjunct faculty member for Loyola University Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago, teaching research methods courses. She has worked extensively in and with community organizations as a Family Prisoner Re-entry Program Developer and Director, Director of Supportive Housing programs for homeless women and children, program evaluator, consultant, advocate, mentor, and volunteer.
She has written and collaborated on numerous publications on topics including mass incarceration and father identity, fatherhood and self-sufficiency, and employment pathways among the incarcerated. She received her PhD in Sociology from Loyola University Chicago.
Anna Marin, Phd(ABD) – Senior Partner Advocate & Co-Creator
Anna has almost two decades of strategic thinking, planning, and problem solving within communities and in the nonprofit social impact sector. She has done changemaking and movement building in the Chicago area, southern California, Texas, and Brazil. As a leader in her own community, she worked to raise the issue of police racial profiling, served as a campaign strategist for a slate of progressive aldermanic candidates, dispersed Covid aid to neighbors, and served as the co-chair of the United Way of Metro Chicago Neighborhood Network in Cicero (Cicero Community Collaborative). Anna attended the University of Texas at Austin in a PhD program (ABD) and received multiple fellowships to study language and social movements in Brazil and Egypt. She received an MA in Comparative Literature at San Diego State University and a BA in Secondary English Education at DePaul University. She is bilingual English/ Spanish and has professional fluency in Portuguese.
