Jessica Sharp: Leading the Way in Professional Development with the Power of the Brain
As a business and marketing student at the University of South Carolina, Jessica Sharp had no idea what was going to happen after college. Now a changemaker, equity advocate, and brain researcher, Sharp has found herself on a mission to help organizations develop better leadership strategies and to improve equity and inclusion initiatives through a brain-based approach.
Sharp originally became interested in how the mind works while working with the youth at the nonprofit Teach for America. “I did Teach for America, and while I was teaching, I began learning about the brain,” she says. Sharp also read a book called Poverty Impacts the Brain and soon became fascinated with how the brain functions in relation to socioeconomic experiences. She discovered that certain experiences can literally change the structure of someone’s brain, and one of those experiences includes living in poverty for very long periods of time. “The part of our brain that is programmed to keep us safe, that part of the brain is bigger in people who have lived in poverty,” Sharp explains. “Our brains are social organs which means that we have a need for connection, for community, for belonging.”
After she finished teaching and moved back to Greenville, SC, Sharp started working with the youth at the YMCA where she observed similarities in teenagers’ behaviors, furthering her interest in the functions of the brain. “I started asking, why is it that teenagers behave in similar ways regardless of who they are, and why is it that folks who live in poverty have similar behavior?, so that started a love affair with the brain that never ended,” she says.
In 2017, Sharp founded Sharp Brain Consulting, an organizational development firm that works with organizations in the public sector (specifically nonprofits) to improve leadership, professional development support, equity and inclusion, and employee well-being that utilizes neuroscience-based organizational development. Originally a part-time endeavor, Sharp recently took a leap of faith and made Sharp Brain Consulting her full-time job in August 2020. “When the world kind of exploded last year, and it became clear that organizations needed to be more intentional about their inclusion work, I had a lot of people reaching out to me,” Sharp says.
Sharp’s first segway into equity and inclusion opened when she was working for a large healthcare system in Greenville, SC. While working there, she became involved in equity and inclusion efforts, handling discrimination investigations, and other related work. After her supervisor left the department, Sharp took on more responsibility and soon discovered how discrimination can have a heavy impact on someone’s health and wellbeing. “The work I was doing — the stakes were oftentimes very high,” Sharp says of the experience. “Everything feels more heavy, if you will. When there is a need or when something happens that is discriminatory, it can end up having a direct impact on someone’s health.”
Sharp Brain Consulting specifically helps organizations hone in on their own diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through interactive training sessions with a brain-based approach, most of which are facilitated by Sharp herself. She helps leaders and staff members understand the barriers to creating an inclusive organization through coaching with diversity in mind, reviewing policies and procedures, or helping a company do an “audit.” Sharp customizes the process for each and every organization she works with. In the end, she ultimately leaves accountability up to the organization. “Organizations own problems, and therefore, they own solutions. It’s not my job to take over or take ownership of the situation — the leadership has to do that,” Sharp says.
When Sharp is not helping organizations improve their professional development, she is tirelessly advocating for foster children as a guardian ad litem, fighting a system that she describes as frustrating and broken. “I am very passionate about the child welfare system,” she says. “We are always thinking about the child and how we can create scenarios where fewer kids have to be in foster care.” As a guardian ad litem, Sharp talks to foster children, represents them in court, and listens to their needs and desires. “I am very passionate about improving the system,” Sharp expresses.
Ultimately, Sharp is passionate about creating justice and making the world a place where everyone has what they need to be as successful as they want to be. “Everything that I do is rooted in that desire for justice and for equity,” she says. She is on a mission to change the world, one child and one organization at a time.
Written by Rosa Linda Fallon