Sharon Deich is vice president of FourPoint Education Partners, where she focuses on education financing and systems change. Sharon is an expert in supporting strategic and sustainable partnerships that pave the way for learning and improved outcomes for children and youth.
At FourPoint, Sharon directs the new Center for Financing School-Community Partnerships. The Center provides technical assistance to districts, non-profits and foundations to promote sustainability; facilitates strategic planning for partnership efforts in early learning and K12 systems; develops multi-year sustainable financing plans for districts and nonprofits; conducts financial analyses for school districts looking to reallocate resources toward priority areas and nonprofits looking to scale their work; supports learning networks of district and city leaders to address financing challenges; and develops tools and resources to build capacity for districts and nonprofit organizations to improve financing and reach more students. Sharon also provides strategic counsel to foundation officers to help guide strategy and funding decisions. Her work builds on two decades of experience in the nonprofit sector that includes research, policy analysis, and technical assistance. She has worked with federal agencies, state government leaders, city officials, foundation initiative leaders, and nonprofit organizations on issues related to early care, K12 education, afterschool programming, community schools, school-community partnerships and related education reform efforts.
From 1997 to 2007, Sharon served as an associate director for The Finance Project, where she authored numerous briefs and reports on the financing of human services programs and provided technical assistance and expert facilitation to organizations looking to scale up and sustain promising initiatives. During this period, she also served on numerous advisory boards, including one for a joint project of the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Conference of State Legislatures to expand extra learning opportunities as a way to improve student success.
Before joining The Finance Project, Sharon spent 15 years researching and evaluating programs that support children and families in under-resourced communities. Her prior experience includes work for the American Institutes for Research, where she worked closely with the Head Start Bureau to revise performance standards and the training and technical assistance system. She also spent six years working at the Urban Institute, where she was a contributing researcher and author for the National Child Care Study.
Expertise
- Education finance
- School-community partnerships
- System improvement
Education
- MPP from the University of Michigan
- BS in Economics from The State University of New York at Albany
