ROMANA LEE-AKIYAMA

Romana Lee-Akiyama is a global cross-sector leader at the intersection of social change, equity, community well-being, and arts and culture. She does this work through various channels, including Life Force Strategies, a culture and wellness curation firm, and as the founding director and curator of the Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project (CLLLP). She established CLLLP in March 2021 as a homage to her late father, a pioneering Asian immigrant printmaker, painter, and professor. The Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project archives, preserves, and promotes Lee’s works on paper and his migration story and journey as an artist, serving as an inspiration to the next generation of artists.

Since launching the Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project, Romana has curated four exhibitions in Philadelphia, centering themes of migration, belonging, anti-Asian hate and violence, and what it means to create “home” for marginalized populations. In 2021, with initial seed funding from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation at the University of Pennsylvania, Romana successfully launched the project and ultimately curated EXCLUDED/INCLUSION, a year-long exhibition at Penn’s Annenberg Center.

Growing up with two artists as parents, Romana was discouraged from pursuing a career in the arts. Instead, she established herself as a social worker, nonprofit executive leader, and public servant, building a successful 25-plus-year career in social change work. At this juncture in her career, she is aligning her deep and wide experiences across multiple sectors to elevate the arts and push the boundaries of who gets to shape our mainstream narratives and stories.