Sharon Brumbaugh has more than 40 years of experience in education policy, governance, and leadership development and has worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. She worked with the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) and the National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) from 2011 to 2020 and last served as the director of quality support. In that role, she was responsible for supporting and coaching all NISL certified facilitators and ensuring that NISL programs were delivered with fidelity.
Sharon served as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) from 2005 to 2011. Her primary responsibility was implementing and leading the Pennsylvania Inspired Leadership Program, a statewide continuing professional education program for school and system leaders.
Before joining PDE, she was the Manager of Leadership Programs for the Education Policy and Leadership Center, where she coordinated and facilitated the Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program and other leadership initiatives.
Sharon has done evaluation and program design work for the national Policymakers’ Program, which was a collaborative effort of the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association, the Education Commission of the States, and the Danforth Foundation. During its ten-year existence, the Policymakers’ Program worked with 15 states and local communities to improve educational outcomes for children.
Brumbaugh’s varied career experiences include serving as project director for the Pennsylvania Head Start – State Collaboration Project, as Director of Inservice Education for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, and as Director of the Bureau of Communication in the Department of the Auditor General. She also has held various management positions in advertising and human resources at the Centre Daily Times, which was then a Knight-Ridder newspaper located in State College, PA.
Her practical experience in education policy, governance and leadership was gained through her 14-year tenure as a local school board member. During that time, she served on the executive board of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and was president of PSBA in 1989. Sharon has served on a number of state boards and commissions including the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission, the Re:Learning Advisory Committee, and the Governor’s Schools Cooperation Committee.
At the national level, Sharon was involved with some of the initial efforts to examine and transform school governance and to strengthen the role of policymakers in school reform. In 1990, she was selected by the Education Commission of the States and the National School Boards Association as one of six school board members in the nation who joined six state legislators on a Panel on Policy Options for Restructuring Education. In 1992, Sharon served as a member of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on School Governance. She also has been on the national faculty for the Coalition of Essential Schools.
Personal Highlights
Sharon is the mother of two adult children (Kathi & James), mother-in-law of Adrianna Brumbaugh, and grandmother of three (Wyatt, Madison, and Preston). She loves spending time with her family and her wide circle of friends.
Bicycling, especially bicycle touring, is one of Sharon’s passions. She has done bicycle tours in several European countries and several states in the U.S. She bicycled across the southern tier of the United States in 2014.
Sharon grew up in rural Pennsylvania and graduated from Tussey Mountain High School, Saxton, PA. She has a BS in political science and sociology from Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA.