Director, Program Development and Strategic Planning
Institute for Women’s Health Research

Sharon has been at NU for almost 3 years.  She spent 18 months as the Director of Special Population Initiatives at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center before moving into her current position. She has a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology and a Master’s Degree in Health Administration.

Where are you from?
Both my husband and I are native Chicagoans.   My husband is a professor, author and political pundit so we really enjoy living in the heart of the city with all its political tradition.

What do you do at IWHR?
I oversee the administrative aspects of the Institute including prioritizing and developing the initiatives we need to accomplish in order to advance our mission of stimulating and encouraging increased women’s health research at Northwestern.

What do you enjoy about your job?
I get the opportunity to work with the entire spectrum of biomedical experts, and can appreciate what it takes to advance technology and therapeutics from the bench to the bedside.  Having created the Office of Women’s Health at the Illinois Department of Public health,  I think there will be a lot of opportunities to partner with the public health community.

What do you do in your spare time?
When we don’t have time to travel far, we spend weekends at our cottage in the Indiana dunes where I enjoy gardening, , reading, swimming and hiking.

Tell us something interesting about yourself. 
While serving as the executive director of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, I was one of seven co-founders of the National Breast Cancer Coalition in Washington, DC.   I designed and chaired their inaugural national grassroots campaign in 1991 that resulted in the first substantial increase in federal funding for breast cancer research from $90 million to $132 million.  One of my key volunteers also uncovered the loophole that allowed us to convince Congress to spend some of the Department of Defense money on breast cancer research.  This year, the federal research budget for breast cancer is over $400 million, including $210 million from the Pentagon budget.