Zulma Zabala currently serves as Senior Fellow, Community and Racial Equity directing the Community and Racial Equity Project funded by the Saint Luke’s Foundation, and developing and implementing a strategy for utilizing CCS Racial Equity Endowment funds. Before joining Community Solutions, she served as chief executive officer for East End Neighborhood House, a multi-service family and community resources center serving the Cleveland community in the Woodhill-Buckeye Neighborhood since 1907.
She began her social services journey under diverse titles, including service in youth development, women leadership/support services, HIV/AIDS awareness, Hispanic/Latino engagement, and prisoner’s advocacy, emphasizing community corrections and organizing. As a speaker, advocate and educator, she is known for her fervent commitment to raising awareness about cultural humility—implementation, authentic engagement of all voices and historical and present impact of neighborhood centers work. She is a graduate from the Cleveland Marshall College of Law’s dual degree program of Juris Doctor of Law and Master of Public Administration.