Akeem Jamal is the Vice President of communication and Government Affairs at Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC). He oversees external and internal public relations and a communications strategy for RIOC. Akeem’s significant contributions to the community of Roosevelt Island include securing a place for J.J. Byrne Playground on the island’s oldest park, officially renamed Margaret Thomas Park, in honor of the first female member of RIOC’s Board of Directors.
Akeem has served in several leadership roles throughout his career and has been an instrumental part of the success of non-profit organizations, ranging from two-person startups to large public service institutions with revenue and operating budgets over $30 million.
Mr. Jamal began his career as a founding member at PIPRA, Inc., later rebranded as the Philadelphia International Unity Cup (PICUP) Festival. He was responsible for all marketing, communications, special events, and development activities for one of the nation’s largest single-day multicultural festivals.
After successfully growing PICUP to be the largest single-day multicultural festival in the United States, Akeem was recruited by Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign as a member of The African American Leadership Committee for Pennsylvania.
Mr. Jamal previously served on the board of directors for The Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, a non-profit organization that supports Roosevelt Island residents and businesses. He also served two terms on the board of directors for Demos Health and was formerly a Trustee of the Bethesda Fountain Preservation Fund. Akeem was a founding member and event organizer for CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, a New York City-based non-profit organization that builds grassroots power among low-income Asian immigrants and promotes racial, social, and economic justice.
In the political arena, Akeem Jamal has served as the Southern Regional Director for the NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB), a non-partisan board of publicly appointed officials responsible for overseeing campaign finance compliance.
In his college years, Akeem was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and ran for a seat on the Children and Family Services Review Board in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Science in Communications/International Relations from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where he served as President of the Student Government Association.