BIO

Advocate, Activist, storyteller, strength based and curious may best describe the lens through which Sharon approaches her violence prevention work with seasoned and emerging innovative leaders in social justice movements. With over 40 years experience of living or working in fifteen different countries outside of the United States, Sharon honed her coaching, facilitation, planning, and policy development skills through people centered development, an approach that fosters community ownership, capacity building, and participatory decision making. 

 

Sharon is proud of the prevention programs she helped develop at STAND! For Families Free of Violence, where she served as Client Services Director for more than 20 years.  Of these programs, most notable were The Collaborative Response To Victims of Crime Project, a multi-faith and service provider initiative to minister to social and spiritual needs of crime victims in Richmond, California and the Faith Community Taskforce of Contra Costa County, a multi year effort of domestic violence advocates and faith leaders from Judaic, Islamic, Christian, and Buddhist traditions that provided education and training to the community on addressing the Role of the Faith Community in preventing family violence.  

 

She is also proud of her work with six School Districts in Contra Costa County that engaged the entire school community in addressing teen dating and intimate partner violence. One of the projects included The Kaiser Resilience Project, a trauma informed care in schools initiative. She also was the Project Director for the DELTA project, an initiative, funded by the Centers For Disease Control that engaged men in preventing family violence. 

 

 One of the five fellowships Sharon received was with the  Re-imagine Lab, a three year program where 16 community fellows from across California formed teams to co-design and develop innovative ideas for preventing violence in their communities. Currently, three of the four projects that were incubated are being implemented throughout the state, including the  Influencers4Justice (I4J). I4J partners with and invests in non-traditional community partners - artists, faith leaders, activists, organizers - who are able to influence social and behavioral norm change within their own communities. Through investing resources, partners agree to work together with advocates and develop domestic violence prevention campaigns appropriate to their organizations and communities. I4J focuses on diverse communities throughout California. Sharon is on the core team for this project. 

 

Sharon also served on various community boards including the California Partnership To End Domestic Violence for seven years, as a board member, Vice Chair, and Chair. In addition to her leadership responsibilities as Chair and Vice Chair, she was in charge of the Board Development and Search Committees.  She looks forward to contributing to R-Evolution’s development and success through the use of her visionary, coaching, facilitation, and planning skills.