Lakeisha Steele
Lakeisha Steele is CASEL’s Vice President of Policy. Before joining CASEL, Lakeisha served in the Biden-Harris Administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs at the Department of Education. Prior to her service in the Biden-Harris Administration, Lakeisha served eight years on Capitol Hill in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, most recently as Senior Education Policy Advisor on the House Education & Labor Committee where she led K-12 education policy, including provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, and the CARES Act, for House Democrats under the leadership of Chairman Bobby Scott (VA-03). Prior to her work on the House Education and Labor Committee, Lakeisha advanced priorities in K-12 and higher education for U.S. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR1) and the Democratic Whip, United States Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL). She spent eight years working in the legal industry performing risk management for law firms. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University and a Master of Public Administration from American University. She is from Kankakee, Illinois and the beautiful southside of Chicago.
Lakeisha lives in the DMV area where she enjoys spending time with her husband, Derek Steele, and their beautiful and brilliant daughter, Ari.