Lecturers at the Jefferson Educational Society

Sharif El-Mekki, M.Ed., is the Founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development. The Center exists to ensure that 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. Among initiatives, El-Mekki is a leader with the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, a grassroots organization of leaders striving to increase the number of teachers of color, as well as culturally-responsive and sustaining educators in Pennsylvania. El-Mekki is a former principal and teacher and the founder of The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice. He is a founding member of the Mayor’s Commission on African American Males, former U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow, U.S. delegate to the International Summit on Teaching and Learning, and the Conference on Integrating Refugees and Immigrants into Schools. El-Mekki is a popular blogger of Seventh Ward and a podcaster on 8 Black Hands.