Theodora Skeadas thinks and acts globally and locally. She is the Executive Director of Cambridge Local First, which supports diverse, independent small businesses, and ran for Cambridge City Council. Until recently, Skeadas managed Twitter’s Trust & Safety Council, and she previously focused on cybersecurity at Booz Allen Hamilton. She has worked in conflict resolution, community development, and economic empowerment across Central America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

Skeadas has led three Harvard alumni groups: W3D–Women in Defense, Diplomacy, and Development, HKS New England Alumni Association, and HKS Women’s Network. Writing that Harvard has the responsibility and the power “to create a more equitable, accessible, and just society,” Skeadas cites several positive examples: 

• Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery response offers “a global model of what institutions of higher ed can do to advance the process of reckoning and repair”; 

• Harvard’s decision to divest from fossil fuels (after years of pressure) “has elevated the importance of substantiating climate commitments in the global conversation”. 

• The Coalition for a Diverse Harvard fights for DEI and racial justice at Harvard and in higher education.

Skeadas has worked consistently to bring diversity and inclusion to Harvard, her workplaces, and her organizations, and she will continue to press Harvard to generate which address the harms of an inequitable society.