Sharon Adams-Taylor

Sharon Adams-Taylor was most recently associate executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and was responsible for child health, youth development, social justice, and equity initiatives. She raised more than $31 million while at AASA and re-granted millions to help schools improve the health, education, and life trajectories of children and youth in poverty. In 2021 alone, her work directly impacted 2.9 million students in 53 school districts.

Prior to AASA, Sharon was a senior associate at the Children’s Defense Fund, where she coordinated its adolescent pregnancy clearinghouse. She was also a researcher at the UNC Child Health Outcomes Project, which was the first organization in the nation to track key indicators and monitor morbidity and mortality rates for childhood diseases. Sharon also directed the Head Start Resource Access Project where she coordinated health training for 178 grantees in six states. Her other previous positions include maternal and child health clinical director at the Virgin Islands Department of Health and mainstreaming coordinator at Baltimore City Public Schools.

Her most recent publications include Expanded Pathways: Youth Apprenticeships Give Students Brighter Futures; Health and Hunger through the Lens of Race, Ethnicity and Culture; Feeding Hungry Minds: Stories from the Field; A Shared Vision to Change the Course of Childhood Obesity in African-American and Latino Communities; and Happy, Healthy and Ready to Learn! Insure All Children, which was launched by former U.S. Department of Education Secretary John King and former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.

Sharon was named 2019 School Health Leader of the Year from the American Public Health Association. In 2022, she received the Dr. Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award for her work in equity and social justice across the globe. She holds degrees from Howard University, The Catholic University of America, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She served fellowships with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and has served on more than 10 state, local, and national boards.