Shari is a committed and passionate human rights advocate, who has more than 20 years of experience in human rights grantmaking, capacity-building and advocacy, with 16 years working in senior roles on international reproductive justice and sexual rights. Shari is the Vice President for Programs at American Jewish World Service (AJWS), leading the Programs Division and overseeing AJWS’s grant making, domestic, and international strategy.

Shari began her career as a human rights activist working to end U.S. intervention in the Salvadoran and Guatemalan civil wars. Shari worked for The Synergos Institute for more than a decade, where she led its largest global program to develop leadership networks of civil society professionals in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Before joining AJWS in 2013, Shari served as director of programs for the Open Society Foundation’s Public Health Program, co-leading a 55-person global team of international grant makers and advocates.

Shari holds a B.A. in political science and Latin American studies from Tufts University and an M.A. from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.