ABOUT
COMM|VEDA Consulting provides research, evaluation, writing, and project management services to mission-driven organizations. We are passionate about making data and information accessible and useful, grounding our work in a community-based, systems perspective.
Seema Shah, Ph.D.
Founder and Principal
Seema's (she/her) career spans two decades in the academic, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. Innately curious about the world, Seema combines the broad perspective of a generalist with specific expertise on social justice and human rights issues. Her work has touched on a wide range of topics, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, urban education, community organizing, women's rights, youth development, disaster philanthropy, and the global water crisis.
Prior to launching COMM|VEDA Consulting in 2017, Seema served as deputy director at Cricket Island Foundation, where she helped resource the field of youth-led social change. From 2010-2016, she was Foundation Center's (now Candid) director of research for special projects, where she spearheaded the research department’s transition from written reports to a full suite of rich, interactive online tools, providing grantmakers with the information needed to make strategic decisions. While at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, Seema co-directed a seminal, six-year national, longitudinal study on community organizing and school reform. She is a co-author of a book that documents the study’s findings, Community Organizing for Stronger Schools, published by Harvard Education Press.
As the author of more than 40 publications, Seema has built a reputation for combining rock-solid research chops with a keen eye for effective communications, defying the classic case of a report sitting on a shelf. As a project manager, she understands how to foster collaboration, deftly managing large, multi-stakeholder teams. She brings extensive knowledge of the nonprofit and philanthropic landscape to her work, as well as a strong understanding of systems change efforts.
Seema earned her B.A. in psychology at Duke University and a Ph.D. at DePaul University in clinical-community psychology. She works with clients across the globe and is based in Brooklyn, New York and Atlanta, Georgia.
Collaborators
Edith G. Arrington, Ph.D.
Edith (she/her) is a consultant and licensed psychologist whose research and writing over the past two decades have focused on: race, equity, diversity, and inclusion; understanding and promoting the health and well-being of individuals and communities across contexts; social justice; and a life-span approach to personal and leadership development.
As part of her work with K-12 schools across the greater Philadelphia region, Edith focused on recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and administrators. While at OMG Center for Collaborative Learning (now Equal Measure), Edith served as deputy director of New Connections: Increasing Diversity of RWJF Programming, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that provided grantmaking, career development, and networking opportunities to early- and mid-career researchers from diverse backgrounds.
Edith earned a B.A. in psychology and sociology at Duke University, an M.A. in psychology from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from the School, Community, and Clinical Child Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania. She is based in Philadelphia, PA.
Eleanore Lee
Eleanore (she/her) is a graduate of Swarthmore College. Her research experiences span social psychology, behavioral economics, and political science. She has previously freelanced for the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi, Kenya, where she worked on projects on financial inclusion, data privacy, and vaccine uptake. Eleanore is passionate about conducting applied research in behavioral science and developing data-driven interventions, with a focus on equity and inclusion.
Eleanore received her B.A. in Psychology and minor in Statistics from Swarthmore College.