As CEO of The Clean Slate Initiative (CSI), Sheena Meade leads a national bipartisan effort to advance policy that automatically seals all eligible arrest and conviction records across the United States. Under her leadership, CSI has helped pass legislation across several states that provide a path for 18 million people to receive full or partial record clearance. CSI was recognized as one of the Top 10 Female-Led Companies in SUCCESS magazine and received a $75 million commitment from The Audacious Project in 2023 to support the CSI’s six-year strategy to pass Clean Slate legislation to unlock opportunities for up to 14 million additional people in America—an unprecedented investment in second chances.
Before joining CSI, Meade helped build and scale the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) as its first organizing director and simultaneously took on the role of senior advisor to second chances for the Amendment 4 Florida Campaign. During this statewide, grassroots effort to return voting rights to people experiencing felony disenfranchisement, she raised $15 million, mobilized thousands of impacted families and supporters to get to the polls, trained hundreds of activists to engage within their communities on the issue of criminal justice, and brought together 800 faith congregations to support Amendment 4 efforts.
Meade has presented at a TED Conference, been featured as a spokesperson for the directly impacted in John Legend’s award-winning documentary “Home/Free,” and served as commencement speaker at Cheyney University, the first HBCU in the country, where she also received her first honorary doctor of public service degree. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Public Welfare Foundation and sits on the boards of Live Free USA, the Florida Coalition on Black Civic Engagement, and the Policing Project at NYU School of Law.
