Romana Lee-Akiyama (she/her) joins the Building Movement Project as the Senior Director, Institutional Advancement after having served as the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement at the City of Philadelphia. 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 focuses on bringing together diverse communities to explore commonalities and challenge biases, and to create environments of welcoming and belonging. She serves on the board of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, is a member of the Board of Advisors to the Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, and a member of the Exhibitions Committee with the Da Vinci Art Alliance.

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.