A consulting firm built around mission.

Sheila Coleman-Castells

Co-Partner

Sheila serves NNC as Co-Partner and works as a Fractional Executive and Strategic Partnerships Strategist. She partners with educational institutions, workforce development organizations, nonprofits, government agencies, trade associations, and community initiatives to strengthen organizational capacity, develop strategic partnerships, secure funding, and build the systems that create economic mobility and advancement.

Over more than 25 years, she has led initiatives in workforce development, higher education, industry training and apprenticeship systems, health and disability policy, bilingual and ESL education, faith-based community and economic development, energy-efficient and renewable-energy housing, and public-private partnerships at the federal, state, and local levels. She has worked extensively with linguistically and culturally diverse populations in both domestic and international settings, helping organizations develop inclusive and impactful programs.

Her work includes:

• Designing and managing funding strategies and advocacy for nonprofits, education, workforce initiatives, and government partners.
• Developing partnerships among employers, educational institutions, labor organizations, government agencies, faith-based organizations, and community stakeholders.
• Advising organizations on workforce and apprenticeship system development, strategic planning, and organizational transformation.
• Supporting colleges, universities, school districts, and workforce agencies in aligning programs with labor market goals.
• Conducting program evaluation, compliance review, and implementation analysis for federally and privately funded initiatives.
• Supporting multilingual, multicultural, immigrant, and underserved communities through inclusive workforce development strategies.

Across her career she has helped clients secure more than $75 million in federal, state, and private funding. Her background includes leadership roles within the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, executive nonprofit leadership, international university teaching, and consulting work throughout the United States and abroad.

Sheila is Founder and first President of TESOL Arabia and served as Professor of English at United Arab Emirates University. She has taught as Professor of English-as-a-Second Language Practice and Education Research at the University of Virginia, University of Maryland-College Park, American University, The George Washington University, West Virginia University, Howard University, Frostburg State University, and Northern Virginia Community College (Annandale and Loudoun campuses). Earlier in her career, she served as a Resource Teacher of Bilingual/ESL Education and Special Education for the District of Columbia Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools.

Studied at the University of Virginia (Ph.D., Education Research, ABD), George Mason University (M.Ed., Secondary Education — Bilingual/Multicultural Education, with TESL Certificate; B.A., French Language & Literature), and Boston College (M.A., Theology & Ministry, in process), with additional study at the Université Laval (Québec) and the Université de Neuchâtel (Switzerland). Fluent in French and proficient in Spanish. Certified BPI (BA-T) and HERS Rater (RESNET).

Board Member, West Virginia Botanic Garden. Recognized as a Woman of Resilience on Black Policy Day, 2025, at the West Virginia State Capitol. Mezzo Soprano and Specialist in Sacred Music.

Dr. Bailey Bridgewater

Co-Partner

Bailey's journey started in academia. She began her career teaching English Composition to college students in Pennsylvania, eventually moving to Indiana for an administrative role that saw her lead disability services, a writing center, tutoring resources, and mentoring. Her passion for helping others strengthen their writing skills led her to create a writing group for graduate students, as well as annual week-long writing retreats for students completing theses and dissertations. These events combined the natural settings of Indiana State Parks, guided hikes, workshops on editing, social activities, and intensive writing support — all geared toward giving students the tools to complete a large-scale piece of research writing.

Given the success of these support programs, Bailey was tasked with creating a Writing Across the Curriculum program for the university. She was simultaneously tasked with leading the general education program's evaluation and assessment efforts — creating rubrics and a document analysis strategy, teaching faculty members to assess written work, analyzing collected data, and reporting to university leadership. She trained on assessment with the Higher Learning Commission and regularly scored work for the organization.

While performing her role as Executive Director within the university's Student Success division, Bailey earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration, completing a dissertation on multilingualism and writing support in South African writing centers. During this time she began to learn academic grant writing and was tasked with leading university efforts to apply for a U.S. Department of Education Strengthening Institutions grant to create a mentoring center. The application received a perfect score and was funded at over $2 million. Bailey then assisted in editing and creating the evaluation plan for a Lilly Foundation grant funded over three phases, securing a total of $9 million.

As Bailey's experience with grants and PI-ship evolved, she came to believe she could do the most good by focusing on university and nonprofit fundraising as an independent consultant. To that end, her first company, Bridgewater Writing and Grant Services, was founded in 2021. As CEO and grant manager, she has helped nonprofits, small businesses, Tribes, and universities secure more than $48 million in grants and government contracts. Her wins include federal agencies such as DOT, DOE, USDA, NSF, and SAMHSA, as well as state and provincial grants, local awards, and private foundations.

Bailey is passionate about helping organizations tell their stories and design bounded, fundable projects that serve their communities. She enjoys building evaluation and assessment plans that allow funders to see — with full transparency — the good their money is doing, through solid and digestible data and reporting; she also serves, on occasion, as external evaluator for academic projects. Grant writing may be technical, but at the end of the day it is about helping communities — and that is why Bailey has dedicated herself to this line of work.

Bailey is a member of the Grant Professionals Association.