Sheamekah Williams is the President and CEO of the Evolution Foundation. The Foundation, which provides resources, support, and technical assistance to families, community coalitions, and child behavioral health service providers in the state of Oklahoma, focuses on community coalition-building and technical assistance; coalition training; trauma training; training curriculum development; and strategic planning, and serves as liaison between the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services and other child-serving agencies.
Ms. Williams is the immediate past Director of Children, Youth, and Family Services at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. She was responsible for the administrative oversight and coordination of behavioral health services for children, youth, young adults, and families across the state. As the administrator over behavioral health services, she worked with all phases of programs, from development and strategic planning through implementation and outcomes monitoring to sustainability. Her leadership enabled exponential growth with more than a 1000% increase in enrollment during her tenure. Ms. Williams oversaw the expansion of the state’s children’s system of care (OKSOC) from a 17-county program serving children ages 5-18 to a sustained, statewide program serving individuals ages 0-25 across all of Oklahoma’s 77 counties. She was the driving force behind strengthening the system of care by expanding the service array — most notably, by establishing mobile crisis response as a sustained statewide service — and building partnerships with the education, child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
As an independent consultant, Ms. Williams works with organizations providing consultation and subject matter expertise on a variety of topics related to behavioral health care system design for children, youth, young adults and families. As an affiliate with the Technical Assistance Collaborative, she provides consultation on development and implementation of medically necessary, intensive home-based services and care coordination for youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance within a Community Mental Health Setting.
