Shelli Golson-Mickens, MPH, MS

Shelli is a Senior Associate at Innovation Network and Public Health Researcher and Evaluator who centers culturally relevant, equitable, and principles-focused approaches in her work. She has experience working with nonprofits, including social service agencies and libraries to facilitate data-driven decision-making on organizational and community levels.

Since joining Innovation Network, Shelli has enjoyed working with organizations seeking to improve equity in their organizational practices and supporting coalitions that are working to improve equity by centering impacted communities in their leadership. Some areas of focus that Shelli is supporting in her role includes child care advocacy and Early Childhood Education (ECE) for Black children.

She has contributed to several practical applications including (1) Supporting the development of the Powered Together tool for child care advocates to measure their progress toward centering impacted people in their work, (2) co-authoring the Equitable Communications Guide, a resource that outlines mindset shifts needed to engage in genuine equitable Communications, and engaging in conversations to promote its use, and (3) co-authoring the Collective Power white paper (in development), a resource that shares lessons from our team on power building in groups that are working to include those most affected by their issue areas.

Shelli received her Master of Science in Measurement and Evaluation from American University, Master of Public Health (MPH) from the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. She currently serves as an Associate Editor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with the Journal for Multidisciplinary Evaluation (JMDE). In her free time, Shelli loves reading and playing video games with her 17-year-old son, Brian, and her 7-year-old daughter, Rianne. She also enjoys traveling and singing loudly with her husband, Josh.