About Sharon Papo, LCSW
EDUCATION
- Master's degree from UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare
- B.A. in Women’s Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz
LICENSES AND CERTIFICATES
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), State of CA
- Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University
HONORS
- Sharon was recently honored by the City of Santa Cruz when they named Jan. 12, 2021 Sharon Papo Day in recognition of Sharon’s intersectional movement building, creating anti-racist consciousness and action, and advocacy for the LGBTQ community
Sharon has extensive experience supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion including:
- Acted as thought partner, advisor, and key relationship manager on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for numerous local businesses, government officials including mayors and congress people, schools, and community organizations
- Provided 50+ speeches and trainings for up to 300 attendees on diversity issues
- Being a health equity advocate (specifically focused on the health disparities of Black youth) while executive director of 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic
- Started a Pajaro Valley Advisory Committee to bring Latinx (gender neutral term for Latino/a) community leaders together for the Diversity Center
- Won lawsuit against the federal government (representing the Diversity Center) for discriminatory executive order that would have banned diversity trainings for federal contractors
- Co-produced conference on race and racism in the LGBTQ community
- Co-facilitated multi-session discussion group about whiteness and white privilege
- Managed team that trained 500 healthcare workers about transgender healthcare
- During executive director tenure, increased Diversity Center Board demographics from an almost all-white Board to intentional shifting of Board demographics to matching county census demographics