Photography: Maria del Rio

Shakirah Monique Simley
San Francisco, CA
Pronouns: she/her/sis

Shakirah Monique Simley is a seasoned leader with two decades of experience in social justice and equity work. She holds a B.A. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Communications via the U.S. Fulbright Scholarship Program to Italy.

Shakirah is the Executive Director of the Booker T. Washington Community Service Center (BTWCSC), one of San Francisco's oldest Black-led organizations with 106 years of direct service. She leads the 72,000 sq ft mixed-use facility and multi-service nonprofit, which includes a community center, child care center, senior wellness programs, and 50 units of service-enriched affordable housing for transitional aged youth. She oversees strategic direction, fundraising, management, program creation, and relations for the BTWCSC. Under Shakirah’s executive leadership since 2021, BTWCSC has quadrupled in size, expanded and now serves over 6,000 vulnerable San Franciscans annually with 40 full-time staff and an $8.5 million budget. BTWCSC is a recognized Platinum Status, Four Star Nonprofit, as designated by Guidestar and Charity Navigator.

Shakirah served as a 2023 Stanford SEERS Fellow, a Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the Haas Center for Public Service, a 2023 Warriors and Kaiser Permanente Bridging the Bay Leader, and is the 2024 winner of the San Francisco Foundation's Phyllis K. Friedman – Retha Smith Robinson Community Leadership Award and a 2025 ‘Power Forward’ honoree of PG&E and the Golden State Valkyries. She has been formally honored by the City and County of San Francisco - by the San Francisco Behavioral Health Commission, by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee as a Good Samaritan and a Special Commendation from Mayor London Breed.

Shakirah has a proven track record of public service, including serving as the inaugural Director for the Office of Racial Equity for the City and County of San Francisco. In this role, she developed San Francisco’s first Citywide Racial Equity framework, led 54 City departments in creating Racial Equity Plans, created Budget Equity principles, and provided policy direction on equity initiatives. She also supported a citywide historic reinvestment into the Black/African American community and the cross-cultural Stand Together SF collaborative. She also served as the first Chief Equity Officer at the City’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Command Center, advocating for equitable access to testing, services, and vaccines for at-risk communities. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for SPUR.

At SF City Hall, Shakirah was a Legislative Aide for Supervisor Vallie Brown of District 5, assisting with over 30 pieces of legislation, including San Francisco's first Safe Parking Program for the vehicularly homeless, increased funding for affordable housing, a local Working Families Earned Income Tax Credit, and expanded universal access to legal aid for low-income communities.

Prior to SF City Hall, she directed community benefits programs focusing on environmental justice and equitable economic development for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), overseeing the Southeast Community Facility and Commission in Bayview Hunter’s Point and successfully advocated for and led the development of the long-awaited new facility at 1550 Evans.

Prior to city government, Shakirah was a 2017 Exchange Fellow with Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Community Programs Director and Canner-in-Residence for Bi-Rite, a family of sustainable food businesses. For over six years, she led community outreach, youth development, and philanthropy programs. Her work included a "Good Food Job" pipeline for at-risk high schoolers, supporting local sugar-sweetened beverage taxes, sponsoring EBT Market Match programs, and providing technical assistance to corner stores to sell healthier food. Her efforts led to Bi-Rite opening its second grocery retail location on Divisadero and being honored with a B Corporation’s 2016 Best for the World Award. In her tenure, she directed $1.3 million in support to over 2,500 organizations, prioritizing a good, clean, and just food system. Currently, Shakirah co-leads a citywide coalition called FAACTS, which has mobilized over 30 community-based organizations to protect over $75 million in public food access funding to help families, support local jobs, and bolster San Francisco’s broader economy.

She has been featured in local and national publications including the SF Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, The New York Times, Eater, Bon Appétit, and Forum with Alexis Madrigal. 

Shakirah has extensive organizing and community education experience; she got her start via the Midwest Academy and organizing security guards with Jobs with Justice in Philadelphia, and formerly led a food justice collaborative Nourish|Resist. She is highly experienced in performing campaign visibility, assisting with strategy, canvassing, fundraising, speech writing, organizing allies for both ballot propositions and candidate campaigns. Shakirah has also led voter education initiatives via guides and teach-ins with a racial equity lens in 2020 and 2024. 

The daughter of a single mom social worker and eldest of 6 siblings, Shakirah was born in the South Bronx and raised in Harlem, New York. She has lived in San Francisco for over 18 years, working to expand access and opportunity for low-income communities and youth. She lives in the Western Addition with her husband and their mischievous black cat, JJ.

Read the long bio here.

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