About Us

Hummingbird Community Cooperation (Hummingbird) understands the value small businesses and community organizations bring to communities - especially communities of color. Often these entities serve as important cultural institutions and community resources but sometimes lack the capacity to support sustainable operations. Hummingbird Community Cooperation is deeply rooted in the knowledge that pooling community resources and forming partnerships can increase capacity and empower communities.

Karimah Edwards MS, JD is the founder and Principal of Hummingbird. Karimah approaches all her efforts using a racial equity lens and is committed to elevating the voices, capabilities and needs of community members who often fall outside the circle of human concern. Karimah brings more than a combined 20 years of experience in research, training, facilitation, and planning. She spent the first 10 years of her career honing her research skills working in two top-rated research libraries, Wake Forest and Tulane Universities. Her career transitioned when she completed graduate school and became a hazard mitigation planner for Cobb County, Georgia's Emergency Management Agency. During her tenure with Cobb County, she led a multi-jurisdiction planning process to write the county’s federally mandated and approved hazard mitigation plan. During the historic 

flooding of 2009 she served as the first point of contact in the Cobb County Disaster Recovery Center, assisting thousands of residents experiencing property loss. Later, as an emergency planner with Seattle Police Department's 

Office of Emergency Management (OEM), Karimah was responsible for identifying corrective actions in compliance with ADA citations against the City specific to emergency shelters, focusing on planning specific to historically marginalized communities and providing regional equity-based trainings and conference planning for agencies and 

non-profits in King , Snohomish, and Pierce Counties. Following her tenure at OEM, Karimah worked for Seattle Parks and Recreation Department (SPR) as a senior capital projects planner, managing over 25 capital projects throughout the SPR park system. While at SPR, Karimah served as the lead in revamping the division's public engagement strategy and project design program using a racial equity and social justice lens as well as assessing and 

implementing equitable hiring processes for division staff and contractors. Skilled at navigating critical matters, Karimah has provided racial equity assessments for multiple departments throughout the City of Seattle, served as a transition facilitator for federal employees following the 2019 government shutdown and has served as a member of multiple public and private committees dedicated to eradicating racism and supporting social justice.