Sharon is a board member and the communications director for A Soldier’s Journey Home. She joined the organization in 2019 during a build near Chattanooga, Tenn. Sharon is originally from San Diego, California, where she grew up in a Navy family. She is a career Federal employee, which she began at the National Naval Medical Center (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center) in Bethesda, Maryland. Since 1982, she has been employed by the Department of Defense at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the nation’s only Federal health sciences university, where she serves as the Deputy Vice President for External Affairs and Director of Alumni Affairs. She has worked as a Fellow in the U.S. Senate, and previously worked as a reporter and photographer for several small-town newspapers in Florida, Maryland and California. Since 2004, she has served as the volunteer Public Information Officer for the Fraternal Order of Leatherheads Society, an international firefighter 501(c)(3) organization. In 2021, she co-founded the Partnership for Aurora-Richland Township Progress, for which she also serves as the volunteer Executive Director, to help revitalize the small town of Aurora, NC. Sharon also serves as the volunteer chair of the Tourism Development Committee for the Aurora Leadership Council, and volunteer communications coordinator for the Town of Aurora.