Robert Steele

Robert Steele, '71 M.P.H., '74 M.S., '75 Ph.D., recently retired Director of the Office for Diversity Initiatives at the Graduate School of the University of Maryland. From 2004 until June 2012 Steele served as the Executive Director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. Under Dr. Steele’s leadership, the Center became nationally known in the field of African American Visual Arts. Prior to that, he held several positions at University of Maryland, College Park including Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and Associate Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Steele has written and contributed to several publications in the field of African American Art, including several entries in the St. James Guide to Black Artists. In addition, Dr. Steele has a number of advisory and board memberships, such as the Governing Board of the Yale University Gallery of Art, the Board of Directors of the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta and the Founder of the National Black Arts Festival’s Collectors Guild, the Advisory Committee of the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College, the Advisory Board of Brodsky Center for Innovative Print and Paper at Rutgers University and the Board of Director of Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. Steele is also a member of the Collectors Club of Washington, D.C., Inc. and the New York Print Club. At Yale, Steele endowed the Robert E. & Jean E. Steele Scholarship Fund. He also helped to establish the Creed/Patton/Steele Endowed Scholarship for minority students at the School of Public Health. His Yale service includes membership on the Board of Governors of the Association of Yale Alumni and the former presidency of the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health. He is currently spearheading efforts to raise funds for an internship at the Yale University Art Gallery. Steele was awarded the Yale Medal in November of 2012.