Demetris White Cheatham

Demetris Cheatham P’29 is the Chief of Staff to the CEO at GitHub, the world’s largest platform of over 100M software developers. She serves as the senior advisor to the CEO and is responsible for the overall strategy, rhythm of business, and operations for the company. 

Before this role, Cheatham was the Senior Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at GitHub. She previously served as the Global Diversity and Inclusion Lead for Red Hat, where she was responsible for implementing the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy for the company and its 13,000 employees around the world. 

Prior to joining Red Hat, Cheatham served as the Chief of Staff to the Chair Pro Tem of the Council of the District of Columbia and the Committee on Business and Economic Development, which has oversight of government agencies with a collective budget of over $2.6B.  

Cheatham started her career as a Technology Analyst at Goldman Sachs in New York and was later selected as the first woman and youngest Executive Director to lead the National Bar Association, the nation’s oldest and largest international network of over 65,000 predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. In 2019, she was named to The Business Journal’s Influencers: Rising Stars, which spotlights 100 executives across the country who are having an impact early in their careers on business being done in cities across the nation. She also received the 2019 Triangle Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Award and was previously named to the Power 100 List for Black Lawyers in America.

Cheatham earned a B.S. in computer science with honors from North Carolina A&T State University and a J.D./MBA from the University of Maryland’s Francis King Carey School of Law and its Robert F. Smith School of Business, respectively. She is a licensed attorney in the State of Maryland and a certified Executive Coach. 

She and her husband, Cornelius, are the proud parents of Zahra ’29.