Sharif El-Mekki is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Black
Educator Development. The Center exists to ensure there will be
equity in the recruiting, training, hiring, and retention of quality
educators that reflect the cultural backgrounds and share common
socio-political interests of the students they serve. The Center is
developing a nationally relevant model to measurably increase
teacher diversity and support Black educators through four pillars:
Professional Learning, Pipeline, Policies, and Pedagogy. So
far, the Center has developed ongoing and direct professional
learning, mentoring, and coaching opportunities for Black teachers
and other educators serving students of color.
The Center also carries forth the freedom or liberation school legacy by hosting Freedom
School sites that incorporates research-based curricula and exposes high school and college
students to the teaching profession to help fuel a pipeline of Black educators.
Prior to founding the Center, El-Mekki served as a nationally recognized principal and U.S.
Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow. His school, Mastery Charter
Shoemaker, was recognized by President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and was awarded the
prestigious EPIC award for three consecutive years as being amongst the top three schools in
the country for accelerating students’ achievement levels. The Shoemaker Campus was also
recognized as one of the top ten middle school and top ten high schools in the state of
Pennsylvania for accelerating the achievement levels of African-American students.
In 2014, El-Mekki founded The Fellowship – Black Male Educators for Social Justice, an
organization dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and developing Black male teachers. El-Mekki
blogs on Phillys7thWard, is a member of the 8 Black Hands podcast and serves on several
boards and committees focused on educational and racial justice
