Stephanie is a formerly homeless architect whose primary goal is to provide affirming and dignified spaces for our unhoused and housing-insecure neighbors and those in recovery from drugs and alcohol.

After living in New York City for almost two decades, obtaining a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute, and working professionally for 18 years; Stephanie returned home at the start of the pandemic and hit the ground running. While serving our local communities, she shifted her career focus back to what had initially inspired her to become an architect. She founded Shelter the People Cleveland in 2021, bridging her vast professional and lived experiences together with the intention of building a brighter future for our city.

Stephanie is a 3rd generation Lebanese-American. She is studying Arabic under the regional Druze Imam with the goal to be fluent in the next two years. Her great-grandfather Abbas Hassan Salem Abd Al-Samad immigrated from Ammatour through Ellis Island in the 1920s, fleeing famine following the creation of the French Mandated State of Lebanon.

In addition to her duties with AAC, she leads her growing team at Shelter the People Cleveland and sits on the Advisory Board of the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services where she represents the community as a person with lived experience where she seeks to advocate for those in the community who exist outside of racial and gender binaries.