Patrick Shepherd

Patrick Shepherd has been part of the Cleveland International Film Festival for more than a quarter century. In 2024 he was in his 26th year with the festival and had served as its associate director since 2006, a full-time, year-round job.

A lifelong Ohioan, Patrick was co-president of his Leadership Cleveland Class of 2020 and has served on the boards of nonprofits including the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. In 2007 he received the Human Rights Campaign Leadership Award in recognition of his work on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. Before joining the film festival he worked at the American Red Cross, where he won the Tiffany Award for Employee Excellence in 1999.