Shelley Rubin is co-founder and Co-Chair of the Board of RMA (Rubin Museum of Art) which opened October, 2004. RMA, a museum dedicated to the art of the Himalayas, is located in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York. The dream to found a museum grew out of Shelley's and her husband Donald's desire to share their art collection with the public and the belief that its study would offer a powerful means of revealing universal truths of shared human experience.

Prior to building the museum Mrs. Rubin, together with her husband, started a foundation with the aim of supporting innovative efforts to transform society's institutions and make them more responsible, while at the same time empowering individuals to develop their full potential. One of the first projects of the Foundation was the creation of Himalayan Art Resources, a website designed to catalog and to exhibit on line Himalayan art from collections around the world. This site is now a comprehensive and definitive archive encompassing the art of the entire Himalayan region.

Mrs. Rubin is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Broadcasting Corporation (Thirteen/WNET, WLIW21, HD, Kids, World, and Create), the largest producer of cultural and arts programming in America. She also serves on the Board of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC). Mrs. Rubin recently rotated off the Board of Trustees of the Interfaith Center of New York. She is a member of the Global Philanthropists Circle (GPC) and the Wealth and Giving Forum.