This is the sixth in a series of guest posts by Sandra Moscoso, featuring a few of Capitol Hill’s sheroes — remarkable women — in honor of Women’s History Month. Today’s post features Sherry Trafford. Previous posts featured Heather Schoell, Laurie Siegel, Barbara Percival, Julia Christian, and Barbara Rielhe.
Sherry Trafford – Education activist, community advocate, board room superstar. A public defender in the Mental Health branch of DC’s Superior Court by day (a career that she absolutely loves, BTW), Sherry has served on many community boards, including various roles in the Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA and LSRT, Sports on the Hill, and even Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive. A founding member of the Capitol Hill Public School Parents Organization (CHPSPO), Sherry is a product of a family where “every dinner conversation (was spent) talking about schools and school business.” Her father, a teacher and administrator and the family’s community of educators influenced her to invest in her own community and to “believe that you don’t have to wait for an invitation” to get involved and volunteer. Sherry’s daughter, Annalise (currently a student at School Without Walls), who attended meetings with Sherry even as a baby, has benefited from watching “adults struggling through (issues) and working through problems.”
Sherry is also influenced from the many sheroes she has encountered along the way, including Cathy Pfeiffer, Mary Rush and Fran Ewart, who cared so deeply about their children’s education and school environment, that they became educators themselves. Fellow activists Barbara Riehle and Suzanne Wells, as well as the many women who serve in their schools’ PTAs are Sherry’s sheroes.
Sherry Trafford – Education activist, community advocate, board room superstar. A public defender in the Mental Health branch of DC’s Superior Court by day (a career that she absolutely loves, BTW), Sherry has served on many community boards, including various roles in the Capitol Hill Cluster School PTA and LSRT, Sports on the Hill, and even Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive. A founding member of the Capitol Hill Public School Parents Organization (CHPSPO), Sherry is a product of a family where ‘every dinner conversation (was spent) talking about schools and school business.’ Her father, a teacher and administrator and the family’s community of educators influenced her to invest in her own community and to ‘believe that you have to wait for an invitation’ to get involved and volunteer. Sherry’s daughter, Annalise (currently a student at School Without Walls), who attended meetings with Sherry even as a baby, has benefitted from watching ‘adults struggling through (issues) and working through problems,’
Sherry is also influenced from the many sheroes she has encountered along the way, including Cathy Pfeiffer, Mary Rush and Fran Ewart, who cared so deeply about their children’s education and school environment, that they became educators themselves. Fellow activists Barbara Riehle and Suzanne Wells, as well as the many women who serve in their schools’ PTAs are Sherry’s sheroes.