Jan
2
2024
January 8, 2024
On January 8th, we are thrilled to welcome Romana Lee-Akiyama to the Building Movement Project’s staff as the Senior Director of Institutional Advancement. In this new role, Romana will focus on the fundraising and financial sustainability of BMP and advance our efforts to amplify and communicate the organization’s work and impact. Romana joins BMP after having served as the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement at the City of Philadelphia.Â
Romana is a global cross-sector leader at the intersection of social change, equity, community well-being, and the arts and culture. Throughout her career, she has served as a skilled advocate and partner to nonprofit and community-based leaders and organizations, grantmakers and funders, and government institutions. Her expertise lies in unknotting challenging situations and complex systems to drive towards equitable results through strategy, planning and engagement.
Romana is civically engaged and active in her community. She is the founding director and curator of the Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project, which she founded in 2021 as a tribute to her late father, an artist, printmaker and professor whose immigrant story continues to inspire the next generation of artists. As a curator and facilitator, Romana has focused on bringing together diverse communities to address stereotypes and bias, and to create a sense of belonging and inclusion. She serves as the Co-Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a member of the Penn Museum Community Advisory Group, Board of Advisors to the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, and a board member of Live Work Philadelphia.
Romana holds a BA in International Relations from Tufts University and a Master of Social Service and Master of Law and Social Policy from the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. She is a 2023 Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a Fellow with the Center for Asian Pacific American Women. Romana enjoys practicing and teaching yoga in her spare time.
Connect with Romana on LinkedIn, and learn how to pronounce her name here.
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