Ashley Steele takes over as president and chief executive officer of United Disability Services on Monday, Nov. 2, succeeding retiring president and CEO Brian Thomas at the Akron-based nonprofit, according to the organization’s Oct. 20 announcement. United Disability Services — UDS — provides support, advocacy and inclusive programming to people with disabilities from its home at 701 S. Main St. in Akron.
Steele brings more than 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience to the role, according to the news release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. She comes to Akron from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, where she has served as chief of staff in the Office of the President, working on strategic planning, institutional initiatives and organizational operations, the release said, in reporting by the Akron Beacon Journal.
Before the seminary, Steele spent 13 years as executive director of Urban Mission Ministries, overseeing programs addressing housing and homelessness, food insecurity and workforce development, according to the release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. She has also worked with agencies supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout her career — the population at the center of UDS’s work in Summit County.
Her education matches the dual nature of the job: a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from American University, and a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary, according to the release. Running UDS means managing budgets, programs and a large staff while keeping a mission — person-centered, inclusive, life-enriching options, in the organization’s own words — at the front of every decision.
“There is a strong foundation here and so much opportunity ahead,” Steele said in the release reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. “I’m especially looking forward to working alongside Brian Thomas during this transition and getting to know the dedicated staff, board of directors, partners, volunteers and donors who have helped make UDS what it is today,” she told the Akron Beacon Journal through the release.
The transition is a planned handover, not an abrupt one: Steele will work closely with Thomas, the retiring president, to ensure continuity of operations for the Akron community, according to the organization. Founded in 1949, UDS is one of Summit County’s largest nonprofit providers of comprehensive services for individuals with developmental disabilities, offering vocational training, employment opportunities, therapeutic activities and social and recreational programming.
The scale of the job is easy to underestimate from outside. From its offices at 701 S. Main St., UDS runs the kind of everyday infrastructure families rely on without thinking about it: transportation services that began equipping every bus with new driver-safety technology in February 2024, adult services programs whose participants recently built a creative project with Akron artist Dan Cuthbert, and a quarterly magazine, Aspire!, that carries the community’s own news, according to the organization’s website. A new president inherits all of that at once — the programs, the buses, the volunteers and the donors — which is why the organization built a working overlap with Thomas into the handover.
Steele’s arrival lands in a season of institution-building across Akron’s nonprofit and health community. Related coverage: Akron Children’s opens a pediatric practice inside a Cleveland Boys & Girls Club, and Bridgestone opens a new Bandag training center on its Akron campus — different missions, the same bet on Akron as a place where regional institutions invest.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
Confirmed: Steele’s first day is Nov. 2, 2026, per United Disability Services’ Oct. 20 announcement; Thomas is retiring and will assist through the transition; and Steele’s background — Pittsburgh Theological Seminary chief of staff, 13 years leading Urban Mission Ministries, degrees from American University and Wesley Theological Seminary — is as stated in the organization’s release as reported by the Akron Beacon Journal. Still to come are Steele’s first public priorities for UDS and the length of the overlap period with Thomas.
What happens next is the transition itself: Steele meeting the staff, board, partners, volunteers and donors she named in her statement, and a leadership handover that UDS families — who depend on its programs every week — should feel as continuity, not change. Her first public schedule and priorities, expected as the transition period with Thomas gets underway, will show where she intends to take an organization that has served Akron since 1949.