Her Story
About Sharon
My career in workforce development and adult education spanned nearly 40 years, beginning when I graduated with my master's degree in 1982. I started with CETA (Comprehensive Education and Training Act), which became JTPA (Joint Training Partnership Act) the following year, working in local workforce development for 15 years. During that time, I had the privilege of helping a young woman who survived a tragic shooting that killed her husband - she called me from the hospital determined not to lose her place in class, and she went on to graduate and get a great job. I then spent 2 years at the Department of Defense writing training programs for nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare, where I earned a General's coin for my work with the Gulf War veterans association investigating mysterious ailments, which we discovered were linked to uranium-enriched armor plating. After 3 years with a YouthBuild program teaching inner-city youth, I moved to the Department of Labor in New York City - quite a culture shock for this Southern girl. While running training programs as part of my executive leadership program, I applied for a job just to demonstrate the online application system to my students, and ended up actually getting hired at the Department of Education's national office in 2004. There, I trained all the other states and federal partners on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and reviewed state plans - my department had such confidence in me that they gave me the responsibility to ensure everyone understood what they had to do. I retired in 2020 and now do consulting work for adult education and grant writing, but my primary passion is writing. I have 6 self-published books on Amazon, including journals, empowerment workbooks, and a three-book cozy fantasy series about a dragon accountant who requires intricate paperwork forms. My book closest to my heart, 'The Queen and the Tom,' releases August 11th - it's an animal hero fantasy inspired by my 18-year-old tabby I lost last year, about a cat who runs away and finds a feral colony, teaching a young tortoiseshell how to live wild. The tagline is 'the truest journeys are not the ones that carry you away, but the ones who take you home,' and it's about found family, belonging, loyalty, and home. I'm partnering with Purrology Cat Cafe in Lakeland, Florida to hold rescue and adoption events, as they're on the brink of their 500th adoption through their work with Cat Haven.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sharon
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to almost not having that success. When you're young and you make decisions, you have to think about how this is going to affect not just tomorrow or next week, but a year, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years down the road. You realize that it's just a cascade of things, and it all hangs on one decision. I came so close to making the wrong decision, but I had to think about how if I do this, it's going to affect everybody around me and change my course. I went back and made the hard decision - not the good decision, but the hard decision to make it turn out right. Every time I would do something, like get my degree, I said I have to do this, I have to finish this because of this one thing that happened. This is why I made that decision, so that I could reach this point.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my dad, and it's so simple: if you're going to do something, don't do it half-assed. Do it right. You may not enjoy it, but do it right. And if you're not going to do it, then tell them you're not going to do it. Don't just say 'yeah, okay, I can' and then not follow through.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Be diligent and be extraordinary. Extraordinary just means thinking out of the box - don't accept something just because somebody told you no. Think out of the box and figure out a way to get it done. Make a life for yourself. And always remember that the only person you can truly, truly depend on is yourself.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge right now is the political landscape and its impact on workforce development and the federal workforce. You have to persevere and not get discouraged, because this is not going to last forever. I had to go through my own period of grief when everybody in my department got fired - everybody. It felt like they were saying the work that you did doesn't mean anything, that it's just disposable. It's decimated the federal workforce, not just the Department of Education. These are dedicated public servants, and that's one of the biggest challenges you have to go through every year or with every new round of leadership - what's going to happen now? What's going to be the new focus? What's going to be the new emphasis? That's very challenging. The biggest opportunity, I think, is taking your skill set and adapting it to other things, because it is adaptable. There's so much out there that they can do, and it's a matter of not getting locked in your tunnel vision about what you can and can't do. Take that skill set and use it for other purposes.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my work, you approach it with 110%. Don't wait to be asked - you just do it. You see that it needs to be done, and you just do it. In my personal life, family is so incredibly important. You never know when it's going to be taken from you, so spend quality time as much as you possibly can. I have a granddaughter in Huntsville, Alabama, and I try to see her about every 2 months. I don't want her to look back and say she didn't really have any memories of her grandmother. When she looks back as an adult, I want her to say my nana was the best. We would go to formal tea and get dressed with our hats and our tiaras and hold our pinkies out. I want her to look back and say we had such a good time.
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