Sharon Alvandi

Sharon Alvandi works with the Parenting in Context Lab at the University of Michigan where she gathers data about parenting education programs designed for fathers who are expecting babies. She also works for B'nai Brith Youth Organization's Perlman Camp as a part of their inclusivity initiative's staff. Over the 2017 summer, she worked to ensure that campers received appropriate accommodations for differing abilities, consulted with camp staff on mental health and behavior management, intervened, and counseled individuals in crisis, and worked with the general Perlman Camp community to expand BBYO's vision for inclusivity. She also attended the National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute as a Zeitler Fellow. Originally from a Persian-Jewish community in New York, Sharon earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from Bard College and helped found a progressive middle school in the Bronx. While a JCLP student, she interned at a battering intervention program and a prison re-entry program as a group facilitator and a programming organizer. In her free time, Sharon worked to create brave spaces for youth from metro Detroit and nearby suburbs with the Student Youth Dialogues program at the University of Michigan Program on Intergroup Relations. She also worked with young Jewish students at synagogues in Ann Arbor and engaged in discussions with communal leaders about their perspectives on faith identities interwoven in social justice work. Sharon hopes to continue to focus on the interplay between gender and trauma, crisis intervention, and communal healing in social work practices.