Sheela earned her Masters in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Ford School of Public Policy including program design and evaluation studies. She also holds both a B.S. and B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Purdue University and is a professional member of the Ohio Council for the Social Studies. In her career, she has designed programs and evaluation plans for scores of programs serving inner-city, underserved communities in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland which have been successfully funded by federal, state, local, and private entities.

Since 2006, Sheela has worked for Roots of American Music and became its first Development Director in 2007.  Her programs have received top scores from the Ohio Arts Council and the completion of one such project is a film which was showcased at the Cleveland International Film Festival in 2010 and will become a PBS special.  Sheela designs and manages all ROAM evaluations and arts-integrated curriculums for grant funding and Cleveland Metropolitan School District approval - Sheela was instrumental in the design of the first approved art-integrated math curriculum for grades 3-6 in the Cleveland schools and ROAM’s first arts-integrated literacy program “One World Rhythm” (2010).

Sheela studied music under performance scholarships at Cleveland State University and is a ROAM teaching artist, creating and conducting music workshops for elementary aged students.  She is a classically trained flute player and instructor, who also founded "Inrish" in 2006, an Irish and Folk music ensemble.  Currently, Sheela is the lead artist for Roots of American Music at a Cleveland Charter Academy which engages 84 Kindergarten students in African rhythms, pennywhistle/kazoo, and song writing.

Sheela teaches the flute and music workshops at the Fairmount School of Music.

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