[vc_row row_space=”remove_padding_bottom”][vc_column][gva_block_heading title=”Sharon Cornu, Executive Director” align=”align-left”][/gva_block_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_space=”remove_padding”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”4242″ img_size=”450×450″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Sharon Cornu brings St. Mary’s Center decades of experience in management, advocacy and creating learning organizations. She has developed and executed winning strategies to increase investment in affordable housing; moved public support and political will to improve opportunity and security for seniors, small businesses, and working families; and developed innovative strategies for nurturing new leaders. Her interest in community development deepened as Deputy Mayor in Oakland and as Executive Officer of the Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Her writing has been published by the San Francisco Chronicle, Shelterforce, and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. She graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and earned a Masters of Science in Human Services at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, inspired by work at Nickerson Settlement House in Providence, RI. Cornu is a former adjunct professor at Mills College and lives in the East Bay.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row]