Meet the Team

Sharon is the Chief Strategy Officer at WithinReach and the statewide Director for Help Me Grow Washington, where she leads the expansion and design of the statewide infrastructure for the Help Me Grow Washington network. Sharon is a leader in system-building efforts in Washington State that make it easier for families to access services, and has been developing the foundation for Help Me Grow since WithinReach became the Washington affiliate in 2010. During her 17 years at WithinReach, where she oversees strategic direction of programs, evaluation and public policy efforts, Sharon has fostered enormous growth for the organization. She serves as a key advisor, providing strategy and business development thinking across the organization, cultivating funders and overseeing development of the agency’s annual legislative agenda.

José is the Director of Programs at WithinReach, and his role focuses on the implementation, operations and evaluation of the agency’s direct-service programs. He helped to design the Help Me Grow Washington Coordinated Access Point and has expertise in “closed-loop” referral pathways, which ensure that families with young children are successfully connecting to critical services in collaboration with governmental, medical and early childhood education providers. José holds a master’s degree in public administration from Seattle University where he researched using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to inform outreach strategies to marginalized and underserved communities.

Jesse is the Senior Manager of Help Me Grow Washington, responsible for the onboarding and ongoing support for new communities and sub-affiliates in efforts to explore the Help Me Grow model with fidelity through planning and implementation. Jesse works to design, adapt and implement tools to support affiliates in effective system-building efforts across the network. Jesse spent the first 10 years of her career working in local and international community health programs. Following completion of the Community-Oriented Public Health Practice Program at the University of Washington, she conducted research on adolescent mental health and Community Health Worker interventions, and provided coaching to providers as a Health Systems Manager. As the mother of a 2-year-old, Jesse has personal experience navigating some of the early childhood systems, as well as the stressors and joys of parenthood.

Sarah is the Senior Manager of Evaluation and Impact for WithinReach and Help Me Grow Washington. Her role is to guide data-driven decision making, demonstrate program successes and identify opportunities for improvement. She also supports accurate and timely data reporting for Help Me Grow Washington and sub-affiliates. Sarah brings over a decade of experience providing evaluation and technical assistance to clinics, community-based organizations, government agencies and cross-sector coalitions to develop, evaluate and improve their services and programs. She has provided leadership to programs at the national, regional, state and local levels in a wide variety of areas, including Community Health Workers, homelessness, adolescent health, STIs, HIV/AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, and chronic disease.

Chris is a Manager of Healthy Connections at WithinReach. She oversees the Coordinated Access Point Team and the day-to-day functions of the contact center. She focuses on process improvement, data and evaluation, and program expertise to ensure her team is equipped to help families navigate food, health and early childhood systems. Her areas of expertise are in maternal and early childhood programs. As a mom of three, Chris has first-hand experience navigating many of these social and early learning systems. During her time at WithinReach, she has worked with the Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington and served as central intake for Early Support for Infants and Toddlers referrals in King County.