Commencement Speaker and Honorary Degree Recipient

Read Steven Minter's commencement speech

Steven A. Minter is an Executive-in-Residence and a Fellow in the Center for Nonprofit Policy & Practice at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

From 1984-2003, he served as President and Executive Director of The Cleveland Foundation, a public charity dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in Greater Cleveland and the original and second-largest community foundation in the nation. Under Minter’s direction, the Cleveland Foundation became the first non-coastal community foundation to make AIDS grants. He led the Foundation's efforts to extend services for donors, expand donor outreach efforts to the African-American community, improve Cleveland's public schools and systematically revitalize Cleveland's neighborhoods and lakefront. Under his leadership, the Foundation's assets grew from $300 million to $1.5 billion, and grant making increased from $17.5 million to $74 million per year.

In 2003 Minter was awarded the Distinguished Grantmaker Award from the Council on Foundations in recognition of his lifetime achievement in the field of philanthropy.

Prior to joining the nonprofit sector, Minter worked in government, beginning as a caseworker for the Cuyahoga County Welfare Department in 1960 and going on to become its first African American director. From 1970-1975, Minter served as Commissioner of Public Welfare for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the first African American to do so. Minter joined the Carter administration in 1980 to serve as Under Secretary for United States Department of Education and ultimately as director of the department's transition from the Carter to the Reagan administration.

Minter, who holds a master’s degree in social administration from the Mandel School at Case Western Reserve University and a B.A. in education from Baldwin-Wallace College will receive the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.