ASEELAH SHAREEF

Aseelah Shareef offers a unique combination and understanding of inspirational leadership, operations and logistics, organizational programming, and artistry, developed through intense non-profit environments demanding excellence, flexibility and the capacity to master multiple roles. Just a few of those roles include performing in StepAfrika!, the world’s only professional dance company dedicated to the art of stepping (body percussion), which toured nationally and internationally, and teaching and co-creating new curriculum for Dance at Cuyahoga Community College.

Aseelah was the former executive director of Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre, Events Manager for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, and Director of Dance for Cleveland School of the Arts. Her current role is Interim President + Chief Executive Officer at Karamu House, where she implements operational efficiencies across product lines, has developed new arts residency programs, and curates socially and culturally responsive community arts experiences including after-school and weekend arts education models for life-long learners.

She recently and concurrently served as the Interim Executive Director of the Cleveland Arts Prize, the nation’s oldest municipal arts award. She is a 2023 YWCA of Greater Cleveland Woman of Achievement, was a member of the inaugural 2019 Arts and Culture Leaders of Color Fellowship cohort sponsored by Americans for the Arts, The Joyce Foundation and American Express.

Her community involvement includes membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Ohio Advisory Group of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Board Member), 10K Movement (Advisory Board Member), Cleveland Arts Prize (Board of Trustees Chair), the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Foundation (Board Member), Future Heights Grantmaking Committee (member).

Aseelah holds an MA in Arts Administration and BS in Exercise Science from The Florida State University.