Rasha Demashkieh

Rasha Demashkieh received her formal education in Damascus, Syria. She moved to Detroit with her husband Walid in 1975 and attended Wayne State University. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy. Rasha works at CVS Health in Port Huron, where she and her husband, who is a retired physician, reside.

Over the years she has volunteered and fundraised for many organizations: the National Arab American Medical Association, the Ibn Sina fund to benefit medical students at Wayne State University and the American Heart Association, to name a few.

She became involved with the Arab American National Museum at its inception and joined the Friends of the Museum. She then joined the board of ACCESS and has served on different committees since 2010.

Rasha is very involved in her adopted community of Port Huron, where she sits on the board of several organizations. She was elected as a trustee of the Port Huron Area School District Board of Education in 2003 and served for 13 years, during which many initiatives were undertaken to redesign the standards of instruction. She currently serves on the grant committee of the Saint Clair County Community Foundation.

Rasha served two terms on the Civil Rights Commission from 2011-2019. She participated in several hearings that resulted in significant reports namely, -The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic Racism Through the Lens of Flint, and more recently a Report on Equity in Education in Michigan.

She and her husband have three daughters and five grandchildren. Her daughters are spread in different parts of the U.S. and England.