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Sharron Cooks,
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
Sharron Cooks is the Owner & CEO of Making Our Lives Easier LLC, a consulting firm that provides quality resources & information to under-represented and vulnerable communities. Sharron Cooks is the first African- American transgender female to serve as a Democratic National Delegate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2016 at the DNC. She is a passionate human rights activist and the first-ever transgender person to chair a citywide commission in the City of Philadelphia and serve as a the first African-American transgender female VP of Equality PA. Sharron has received numerous awards and acknowledgements for her contributions to LGBTQ social justice activism.
Sharron is also the first openly African- American transgender female to graduate from Arcadia University with her undergraduate degree in philosophy with a focus on ethics. Currently, Sharron is a graduate student at Temple University’s Master of Liberal Arts program, where she focuses her studies on exploring the ethics of cultural exchange in the global marketplace.
I am originally from South New Jersey, born and raised by a highly spiritual and hard working family with Christian morals and ethics. My family has shown me the importance of these values by their own hard work and faith. As I continue on my path of personal and professional growth, in this life experience, the more family and education are important to me. The rediscovering my family’s values and pursuit of higher education has given me a sense of self worth and value I did not have before. In my teenage years and well into my twenties I had many of experiences that were fun but not fulfilling.
I made lots of mistakes in my life and I am still working on fixing those mistakes by making better well informed choices. Learning from past mishaps and challenges make us wiser. I believe everything happens for a reason. I learned a lot from all the mistakes I have made. And more than ever, I appreciate having a supportive family, and friends that believed in me when I did not believe in myself.
With the help of Philadelphia’s community organizations and with the help and support of community members in Philadelphia I was able to find fulfillment in helping others which has given me both a sense of personal and professional fulfillment and accomplishment for the first time in my life. I appreciate now more than ever all the opportunities that are presented to me because I believe it is the universe’s way of letting me know that I am on the right path in my life by being of service to others.
When I was a professional working model at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, CA and a professional adult entertainer and film actress in the early to mid 2000’s, I had the privilege and opportunity to travel to many places and experience many diverse cultures and people from various different backgrounds. I have also lived in a few different states and have been to a couple countries outside the USA but Philadelphia, PA has been my home for quite some time now.
I first moved to Philadelphia at eighteen years old and that is when I began my transition into womanhood. From that point on, my lessons in real life experiences had begun. Many of those life lessons have bought me to where I am now in my life.
In 2008 I got my G.E.D and enrolled in to Peirce Business College in 2009 for about a year or so. Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship with a concentration in Human Resources was my major. I then became interested in psychology because of a psychologist named Abraham Maslow in one of my business management courses which sparked my interest in human behavior so I then decided to transferred to The Community College of Philadelphia which is where I am currently a honors student who is a Liberal Arts Major with a concentration in Psychology and Philosophy. In November 2013 I became a member of Phi Theta Kappa’s International Honor Society and in May 2016 I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy with honors from Arcadia University.
Currently, I am a Temple University College of Liberal Arts Master of Liberal Arts graduate student.