Amy Sherman

ISR Senior Fellow
Sagamore Institute for Policy Research

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Dr. Amy L. Sherman is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She also serves as the Editorial Director for FASTEN (the Faith and Service Technical Education Network). Dr. Sherman is the author of four books and some 70 published articles. Her essays have appeared in such diverse publications as The Public Interest, Policy Review, Christianity Today, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, The American Enterprise, The Washington Times, First Things, Books & Culture, Society, and Philanthropy.

Dr. Sherman is the author of various resource guides for faith leaders, including Establishing a Church-based, Welfare-to-Work Ministry: A Practical How-To Manual and Sharing God’s Heart for the Poor: Meditations for Worship, Prayer, and Service. She has also published the first major study of faith-based intermediary organizations (2002) and the largest national survey of Hispanic church-based community ministries in the U.S. (2003). She is a leading national expert on charitable choice, has served as an advisor to the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, and is the author of The Charitable Choice Handbook for Ministry Leaders. Dr. Sherman provides on-site consulting services to congregations starting or enhancing their community ministries and is a frequent speaker at training conferences for faith-based practitioners. In 2004, Sherman assumed responsibility for the national ele:Vate project, a multi-partner initiative that seeks to equip urban youth workers to cultivate economic literacy among the young people they serve.

Sherman is the founder and former Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit assisting low-income, inner-city families. She is an active member of  Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia and also serves as a Senior Fellow for the International Justice Mission. She received her undergraduate degree in Political Science in 1987 from Messiah College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (1994).