Sharif El-Mekki is the founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, an organization dedicated to strengthening the national pipeline of Black teachers. Founded in 2019 as an extension of the Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice, the Center expands efforts to recruit, prepare, and retain Black male and female educators both locally and across the nation.
Sharif has been an educator for more than 30 years, serving as a teacher, assistant principal, and nationally recognized principal. He led Mastery Charter Shoemaker Campus beginning in 2008, where his leadership helped the school earn national and state recognition. The campus was honored by President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, awarded the EPIC award three times for accelerating student achievement, and recognized as one of Pennsylvania’s top schools for Black student achievement. Additional honors included U.S. News & World Report’s bronze medal ranking in 2016, Schools That Can’s 2015 award, and PennCAN’s ranking as the seventh-best high school in the state for Black student achievement.
His contributions have been recognized nationally. In 2013, he served as a U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow, and in 2017 he won second prize in TheBestSchools.org’s Escalante-Gradillas Prize for Best in Education. He has also been named an America Achieves Fellow and received citations from the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives.
Sharif earned a Master of Arts in elementary education with administrative certification from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
