The Children’s Defense Fund, a major U.S. child advocacy organization, has a new vice president in charge of strategy and program.
For Sheri Brady, a seasoned veteran of roles in child advocacy and other charitable organizations, hiring on with the Children’s Defense Fund will mark a return to an outfit where she cut her teeth in the field as an intern.
Brady most recently served as director of strategic partnership at the Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Solutions. There, she oversaw the organization’s efforts to support grantees as they focused on building community-centered power and equity.
The move comes just a few months after the Rev. Starsky Wilson took over as CEO of the fund last December upon the retirement of its legendary founder, Marian Wright Edelman. Brady’s position is a new one for the Children’s Defense Fund.
Wilson said Brady will be filling important shoes when she comes aboard in June.
“Her leadership in community problem-solving, public policy, and philanthropy will be central to strengthening our capacity to deliver results for America’s children,” said Wilson, who as the pastor of a mostly Black church in St. Louis rose to prominence in the wake of the 2014 police slaying of Michael Brown, a Black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri.
Brady also has worked in policy and executive roles at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Council of Nonprofits, and the Center for Policy Alternatives.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and her law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.