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Alumni in Action: Creating a Better World for Kids
March
12
2026
Alumni in Action: Creating a Better World for Kids
By:
Sarah-Mae McCullough
, Editorial Content Manager
In 2015, Sherika “Sheri” Shnider ’08 was a few years into a community organizing career—and about to experience something that would change her professional trajectory.
The Seattle Academy and George Washington University alum had landed a job at KABOOM!, a national nonprofit working to end playspace inequity. As she supported a project bringing play areas, mentorship, and job opportunities to young people in Baltimore, Maryland, after the death of Freddie Gray, a difficult truth became apparent: Many of the kids she was working with didn’t have adults in their lives to advocate for them.
“I came from SAAS, a place where the only thing I knew adults were capable of was advocating for me,” Sheri said. “Where if I was having an issue, it wasn’t, ‘Good luck,’ it was, ‘Let’s sit down together and figure out how we can get you through this.’ Many of the kids I was working with didn’t have that.”
So, Sheri set out to be that. Drawing on two strengths she had discovered at SAAS—a passion for law and an appreciation for the power of a good advocate—she built a career fighting for kids in the youth legal system and reforming the policies that impact them.
Since her work with KABOOM!, Sheri has graduated from law school, where she began representing kids (and adults who were previously tried as kids) as a defense attorney. Recognizing the need for systemic reform, she pivoted toward advocacy, fighting to end the use of cash bail and solitary confinement for young people and training advocates, attorneys, and students on how racial bias shows up in legal systems and how to effectively utilize data to bolster arguments through organizations like The Gault Center and the Center for Children's Law and Policy.
“Intentionally looking at policies and how we can disrupt and change them to positively impact a broader swath of kids has been such a challenge but such a privilege,” she said. “It is so exciting to see a system change in a meaningful way, and seeing results in the data—kids and communities thriving.”
Currently, Sheri serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Centralized Services for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, where, in part, she helps spearhead change management and statewide reform strategies. And she’s still in touch with some of her favorite SAAS teachers—the ones who helped her find her voice, her confidence, and her interest in law.
Sheri Shnider ’08 (second from right) first discovered her passion for law through Mock Trial at SAAS.
SAAS’s faculty members are what made Sheri’s middle and high school experience transformational. When she thinks about SAAS, she thinks about
Steve Retz
, Upper School history teacher and her advisor, “helping me stay true to myself and realizing that I didn’t have to go with the crowd.” She thinks about Lauri Connor, previous SAAS Assistant Head of School, Eric Claesson, former history teacher, and
Stacie Cone
, 12th-grade coordinator—the types of “adults who help kids find the best parts of themselves, even when they may not be able to see it.”
“These are teachers and staff who care about you, not just 8:15 A.M - 3 P.M.,” she said. “They care about you past when the bell rings or when extracurriculars are over. Even once you leave the SAAS doors. 18 years after graduation, I still talk to teachers from SAAS.”
Those powerful relationships unlock another key component of a SAAS education: helping students expand their comfort zones.
Sheri came to SAAS as a theater kid, determined to dive into the school’s extensive dance, theater, and music programs. She did all of the above. But with some encouragement from her parents and trusted teachers, she took on less familiar extracurriculars, too, like cross-country and the Outdoors Club.
One of those leaps of faith really stuck: Mock Trial. Steve and former SAAS teacher Jenny Zavatsky nudged her to give it a try, so she did, first as a witness (which felt similar to acting), then as a defense attorney, where she discovered her gift for advocacy. The speaking and reasoning skills and the passion to speak up for others that she developed through Mock Trial have stayed with her throughout her career—along with meaningful relationships that bloomed at SAAS and a deep-seated belief that the right kind of adult support changes kids’ lives.
Reflecting back on her Mock Trial days, “I give Steve and Jenny so much credit for seeing something in me that I didn't see,” Sheri says. “Now that piece of me is so core to my identity and who I am. Because of that, I am where I am today.”
SAAS In Focus, Vol. 7 (2025)
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