Tamika D. Holmes is the founder and executive director of the Community Care Development Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 2014 to offer participants support and outreach in several key areas. The organization focuses on assisting families with essentials, including rent and utilities assistance, food, and clothing and providing educational outreach and mentoring opportunities for participants at all life stages. The Community Care Development Network also partners with other local groups on community-level projects affecting safety and quality of life, including school supply drives. Inspired by Ms. Holmes’ experiences as a teenage parent and former high school dropout, the organization was founded in a small classroom in response to her desire to help others in the community experiencing challenges and hardship, and it has since expanded to fill its own building.
Ms. Holmes’ dedication to overcoming her early circumstances led her to develop a strong lifelong learning ethos and commitment to education. After earning an Associate of Arts in office administration at Lawson State Community College in 2002, she attended Virginia College, graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2005 and a Master of Business Administration in 2007. She completed her Master of Human Resources Management at Colorado Technical University in 2010 and is currently working toward a Doctor of Education with an emphasis in organizational development and community at Marymount University.
In addition to her doctoral coursework, Ms. Holmes has also pursued graduate-level classes in business administration and is a member of the CITI Program in social and behavioral research. She began her career as a financial planning associate and academic coordinator for Virginia College and transitioned into customer service in the late 2000s. She joined Alagasco in 2010 as an operations and services assistant, rising to become a pipeline risk management assistant from 2014 until 2016. During this time, Ms. Holmes also briefly worked with the United Way of Central Alabama as a loan executive and spent two years running Holmes Marketing Firm, an independent venture.
Ms. Holmes’ work in business development and consulting began in 2013 as an independent outplacement services consultant for First Sun Consulting. Since then, she has been a partner of All Things Business-One Stop Shop! and a community workforce educator for AmeriCorps in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2020, she founded Divine Consulting Firm, LLC, where she continues to offer organizations her comprehensive planning and strategy services. In addition to her career in the business world, Ms. Holmes is a longtime career instructor for WorkFaith Birmingham and an adjunct professor of business and human resources at Lawson State Community College, where she has been active faculty since 2015.
In recognition of her contributions to the community as a business leader and nonprofit founder, Ms. Holmes has been presented with dozens of awards and accolades, including being named a 2021 Woman to Watch by Mayor Randall L. Woodfin and the Birmingham Business Journal and a 2021 Unsung Hero by Alabama state Rep. Rolanda Hollis and Congresswoman Terri Sewell. She was a 2021 city of Birmingham StrongHer honoree and was made a Woman of Distinction by the Women of Distinction Foundation in 2020. Other honors have included community service awards from the Birmingham Police Department and the City of Birmingham Neighborhood Association, distinctions from the United Way and Birmingham Society for Human Resources Management, and a 2015 Young Professional of the Year award from the Birmingham Business Alliance.
Ms. Holmes credits her success to her passion for helping others grow and to the support and authenticity of those around her, including her family, who help with the daily operations of the Community Care Development Network. She is proud of the continued growth of the project, including a food hub that has grown to serve more than 700 families each month, and looks forward to continuing to expand. Within five years, Ms. Holmes hopes to tackle food insecurity by opening a grocery store and starting an independent farm and has plans to open a school with robust youth development, dropout recovery, and adult literacy programs within a decade.