Sharon Pette has 25 years of professional experience in juvenile justice and child welfare systems in the United States. As an independent consultant, she has led dozens of state governments, city governments, and large not-for-profit agencies in transforming their systems and improving outcomes for youth and families. Sharon’s passion for assisting agencies in aligning with research-proven practices has allowed agencies throughout the US to achieve and sustain long-lasting results. Her broad range of expertise includes culture change; the development of meaningful performance measures (alignment with the agency’s mission and goals); implementing and managing system-wide initiatives; building the infrastructure for quality assurance and program evaluation; conducting best practice audits; and optimizing resources by streamlining agency and facility processes.

Over the course of her career, Sharon has served as a direct care staff, a mental health counselor, and a high-level administrator in state and city governments (State of Oregon and New York City). Additionally, Sharon is a certified US Department of Justice Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) auditor and has helped dozens of facilities achieve compliance with DOJ regulations and best practices. Sharon holds certificates in Lean Management and Green Belt Six Sigma (Villanova University). Sharon is currently serving as the Chair Person for the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA), Juvenile Network Best Practices Committee.

Sharon is a published author/researcher and has contributed to the field through articles and toolkits on the topics of culture change; evidence-based practices; staff recruitment and retention; reducing isolation; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social service systems; and creating data-informed systems.