Sherida V. Morrison

Sherida V. Morrison, MS, MA, is a sociologist, nonprofit executive, social entrepreneur, trainer, and Human-Centered Design practitioner with more than 30 years of experience advancing the well-being of girls, strengthening nonprofit organizations, and building community-centered partnerships. She is the Founder of the Coalition on Urban Girls and the former Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Demoiselle 2 Femme, NFP, a nationally recognized girl-serving organization that provided prevention, education, leadership development, and college-access programming to girls and young women across Chicago's Far South Side and south suburbs. During her leadership, the organization acquired and managed more than $13 million in federal, state, and private grant funding and served more than 7,000 girls and young women. Sherida currently serves as Associate Director of the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she works at the intersection of community leadership, research, organizational capacity building, and institutional partnership. She is also leading the development of Chicago's first Quality of Life Plan for Girls, an initiative grounded in the voices and lived experiences of more than 2,000 girls and informed by Human-Centered Design and cross-sector collaboration. Through Sapientia Consulting Group, LLC, Sherida provides training, facilitation, strategic planning, organizational development, and consulting support to nonprofit, philanthropic, educational, and community-based organizations. Her areas of expertise include Human-Centered Design, nonprofit leadership and management, grants management, organizational development, coalition building, leadership development, community engagement, gender-responsive programming, and community-engaged research. An accomplished author, researcher, facilitator, and speaker, Sherida has published manuscripts, reports, and evidence-based curricula focused on youth development, trauma, and violence and has presented her work at local and national conferences. Her scholarship includes "Girls and Trauma: Performing Socio-Surgery through a Gender-Responsive Lens." Sherida earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Southern University and A&M College, a Master of Arts in Sociology from DePaul University, and a Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University. She is also completing a Master of Divinity at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Across her work, Sherida is committed to helping organizations and communities move from good intentions to thoughtful, community-informed action by combining research, lived experience, participatory design, and practical strategies for sustainable impact. Northwestern University | sherida.morrison@northwestern.edu