Sharon Osborne
Biography
Sharon Osborne is President/CEO of Children’s Home Society of Washington (CHSW). A passionate advocate, Sharon has committed her personal and professional life to positively impacting the lives of children. She is also a Lifetime Member of the CHSW Board of Trustees and a Board Director of CHSWAM, the Society’s asset management company.
Established in 1896, Children’s Home Society is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide children’s service and advocacy organization. In the time since Sharon became CHSW President/CEO in 1989, the agency has more than quadrupled the number of individuals it has served, to more than 38,000 a year. The number of CHSW service sites has also grown dramatically during Sharon’s tenure, from under 10 to nearly 40 today. The agency’s budget has taken a commensurate leap as well and is currently one of the largest full-service child welfare agencies in the United States.
With a professional career spanning more than 30 years, Sharon’s commitment to service excellence is well known within the child welfare industry and among state and national legislators and policy makers at all levels. She has served in various leadership positions as a consultant, educator, researcher and practitioner. As a result, she is frequently tapped for her expertise, providing leadership regarding children’s issues and her management acumen in both the public and private sector.
As a champion for children who believes that every child deserves quality service, Sharon has been a staunch promoter of best practice excellence and the process of accreditation as a means of proving that organizations and governments worldwide meet the highest standards of service and management excellence. Toward this end, she has partnered with and held leadership positions with the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) and other state, national and international organizations including immediate past chair and executive committee member of the Council on Accreditation for Children and Family Services (COA) and Treasurer for the International Forum for Child Welfare (IFCW). She is also a founding member and Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for Children’s Home Society of America (CHSA), composed of leading child welfare agencies across the United States with a mission “to rekindle a collective passion in society to responsibly address the crucial needs of children and families in America.”
She holds a bachelor’s degree in social welfare and master’s degrees in management and social policy/planning from the University of Chicago. Prior to assuming the helm at CHSW, she served in a number of progressive and responsible positions with public and private children and family agencies. However, Sharon is quick to note that perhaps her best preparation for leading children and family service organizations comes from her experience as a mother. She and her husband, Sam, are the parents of two adult sons, Adam and Jamie.
A community volunteer, Sharon’s dedication has always extended beyond the confines of work. As she has done throughout the years, Sharon continues to serve as a volunteer and founding board member of numerous state, national and community-based children’s programs, schools and private foundations.
|
Press
Room
