Phyllis Seven Harris is the Executive Director of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, where she has served since 2012. A nonprofit executive, educator, mentor and community leader, Seven has spent her career building organizations, programs, partnerships, and spaces that help people feel seen, supported, and connected to possibility.

Under her leadership, the Center has grown into a regional LGBTQ+ hub serving thousands of people each year through youth programs, senior services, trans and nonbinary support, health navigation, community events, advocacy, and intergenerational programming.

Seven also helped lead the Center through the creation of its permanent home, a 15,500-square-foot LEED-certified facility in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District, and through its 50th anniversary season, honoring the organization’s legacy while preparing for its future. Seven’s work sits at the intersection of nonprofit management, social justice, leadership development, and community care. She is especially interested in what it takes to build sustainable organizations that can hold both mission and people well.

Her leadership is shaped by the belief that movements need strong infrastructure, honest relationships, and leaders who are willing to tell the truth, make thoughtful decisions, and keep moving the work forward. In addition to her role at the Center, Seven serves on several boards and advisory bodies, including Zygote Press, Facing History & Ourselves Cleveland, and other civic and community-based organizations.

She is also an adjunct instructor in nonprofit studies and continues to mentor emerging leaders across the nonprofit and civic sectors. A proud Clevelander, mother, creative, and lifelong learner, Seven brings to this fellowship decades of lived experience, professional practice, and deep commitment to community. Her leadership work is grounded in purpose, care, and the belief that the future depends not only on what we build, but how we build it and who we bring with us.