Sharon Stout, Chair
Sharon Stout has been a fundraising consultant & event designer for almost 30 years. She is highly active in the Newton Community, where she has lived for almost 20 years. She is a former board member of Boys & Girls Club, Birthday Wishes, Kiwanis, Newton’s League of Women voters, former member of the Human rights & Youth commission’s. She has also worked with such wonderful causes as Second Step, CAN-DO, NCSC, the Senior Center & YMCA. Under the last 3 mayors, she has touched, organized or fundraised for many of the signature citywide events, for the past 15 years, Newton Serves, Harvest Fair, 4th July, in recent years Newtonville Day. Her personal passion was chairing the American Cancer Society – 24 hour Brookline/Newton Relay for Life walk for 8 years, with the last 3 years merging into the Watertown/Newton/Waltham Relay for Life Walk.
She is currently serving as Chair of Newton Democratic party, one of the Deputy Treasurers of The Mass Democratic Party, she is a trustee of Newton Free Library, Co-Chair of Emerge, and on the advisory board of JALSA, just to name a few.
She has dedicated the last 30 years of her life working within the political arena for local, state, & National races. She has managed events at 3 National Democratic conventions and has even been elected as a delegate in Charlotte, NC. She has worked with over 5 dozen local, statewide, national campaigns over the years, and advises many fundraising committees. Which included sitting on President Bill Clinton, President Obama & President Biden finance committee team.
Elizabeth Maynard, Treasurer
Class of 2012
Elizabeth “Libby” Maynard is an Emerge Alumnae of the Class of 2012. She is a passionate advocate for women in leadership. She brings a strong background in organizational and nonprofit management.
Elizabeth is an Executive Director with McKenna Management, an association management firm headquartered in Westford, MA. Her professional interests include: government relations and grassroots member advocacy, membership recruitment and retention, meeting planning, and association management technology. While at McKenna Management she has successfully developed and implemented many client initiatives ranging from grassroots letter writing campaigns to sold out educational programs. Prior to joining McKenna Management she worked at the Massachusetts Nurses Association and managed several political campaigns in Western Massachusetts, including Class of 2011 Alum Mary Olberding’s successful first run for Register of Deeds in Hampshire County.
Apart from her Emerge Massachusetts volunteer role, she has also served as a Gala Committee Member for the Progeria Research Foundation’s Night of Wonder, was a founding board member of the UMass Women into Leadership program at UMass Amherst, and is currently the 20s/30s Vision chair for Christ Church Episcopal Church. She previously served as Chair of the Young Democrats of Massachusetts from 2013-2015 and held various leadership roles in the organization from 2008-2013. Elizabeth splits her time between Alexandria, VA and Chelmsford, MA.
Stephanie L. Everett, ESQ.
Class of 2012
Stephanie Everett was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of 19, Stephanie became a teen mother, giving birth to her first daughter. By the time she was 20 she found herself homeless with a 1 year old daughter. By 22, Stephanie had found an apartment and discovered she was pregnant again with her second daughter. It was during this pregnancy that Stephanie decided she would not let society determine her fate or that of her family and enrolled back into college. In 2002, Stephanie received her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University. Completing her educational goals, Stephanie earned her Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School in 2008 and was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts the same year.
Stephanie presently operates a solo law firm with an emphasis on criminal law, business contracts and real estate matters. Prior to practicing law, Stephanie devoted her professional career to public service and ensuring equal access to state and local resources and advocating for women rights. Her past roles included serving as the Executive Director for Multiple Boards with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Chief of Staff to the Department of Transitional Assistance, Deputy Chief of Staff to State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz where she her issue areas included Housing, Youth Violence Prevention, minority-women owned businesses. Adjunct Professor at Roxbury Community College and as a Public Safety Manager of youth violence prevention grants and public safety initiatives. Stephanie continues to serve her community as the Affirmative Action Liaison to Ward 17 and volunteering on campaigns for candidates seeking state and local seats.
Stephanie has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. In 2012, Stephanie was recognized as a Top Woman of Law by Lawyer’s Weekly and in 2013 was received the Woman Of Color Changing Our Community by the Eastern Stars of Prince Hall. In January 2009, Stephanie was appointed by the Caucus of Women Legislators to serve as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, an appointment she proudly held until 2013. Stephanie presently serves as a Commissioner on the Boston Employment Commission and a member of the Massachusetts Cannabis Commission Citizen’s Review Committee. She previously has served on the boards of Mass Alliance of Teen Pregnancy, Roxbury Youthworks and Think Politics. Stephanie continues to reside in Mattapan with her husband and children.
Alex Brenock
Class of 2017
Alex Brenock is an Emerge Alumnae of the Class of 2017. She has served on the Selection, Recruitment and Program Committee since 2017.
For the past eight years, she has worked as a consultant in the tech industry, where she specializes in client relationships and project management.
Outside of work, Alex dedicates time to political campaigns and advocates for women in politics. She has been active in campaigns for President Barack Obama, Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator Ed Markey, and U.S. Representative Katherine Clark. She has worked for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and for U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy, III.
Alex previously served as the co-chair of the Young Professionals’ Board at the Greater Boston Food Bank. She is a graduate of the 2020 inaugural cohort of Supermajority Leaders, where she was trained by Cecil Richards, Alicia Garza and Ai-Jen Poo on topics including organizing and working towards gender equality.
Alex studied at Trinity College Dublin. She graduated cum laude from Saint Michael’s College with a B.A. in Business Administration. She currently lives in Cambridge, MA.
Erin Riley
Erin Riley is a senior director within O’Neill and Associates’ government relations division. She is a policy expert whose success comes by bridging gaps, making connections, and negotiating to find legal and policy solutions for her clients.
Prior to joining O’Neill and Associates, Erin worked in private practice as a policy attorney and served as Legislative Director, Legal Counsel, and a Senior Aide in both the Massachusetts House and Senate. As a legislative staffer, she worked on several landmark bills that became law. Additionally, Erin has secured significant wins for clients before the State Ballot Law Commission and local and state permit and licensing authorities. She has also dedicated countless hours to working toward state, civic, and federal voter protection rights and has been on the ground working federal, state, and local campaigns in Massachusetts.
Erin has been a licensed attorney since 2013 when she graduated from the Northeastern University School of Law. She also graduated cum laude from Connecticut College with degrees in Government and Economics and was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society. Erin, a lifelong competitive sailor at the local and national levels, also volunteers as a member of the U.S. Sailing Legal Committee and coaches her daughter’s youth lacrosse team.
Dr. Rebecca Shangraw
Class of 2019
Dr. Rebecca Shangraw is a Senior Lecturer of Applied Human Development in Boston University’s BU-Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, where her research involves identifying recommended teaching practices that best support inclusive sport and physical education environments. Dr. Shangraw completed a year of AmeriCorps service with the Up2Us Coach Across America program in 2012 and served as a Coaching Fellow with Special Olympics International and the US Department of State from 2013-2014. Most recently, Dr. Shangraw was a content advisor for Massachusetts’ first medically accurate, LGBTQIA-inclusive Comprehensive Health and Physical Education PK-12 Frameworks.
An Emerge alumnae from the class of 2019, Rebecca got her political feet wet volunteering for MassEquality’s marriage equality campaign in 2006 and 2007. Following MassEquality’s success, Rebecca volunteered for countless initiatives and candidates until she decided it was time to pull her own papers in 2017. In November 2017, Rebecca was elected to a four-year term on the Weymouth (Massachusetts) School Committee, becoming the first open member of the LGBTQIA+ community to be elected to office in Weymouth. In 2019, Rebecca was the lead strategist behind Weymouth’s first-ever successful debt exclusion campaign to fund the building of a new middle school. In 2021, Rebecca received the honor of being named to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) All-State School Committee and was re-elected to a second, four-year School Committee term. Rebecca became the Weymouth School-Committee’s Vice-Chair in June 2023. Outside of her School Committee duties, Rebecca also serves as an elected member of the Massachusetts Democratic State Party, an elected member of the Weymouth Democratic Town Committee, and member of the Friends of the Weymouth Libraries board.
Previously, Rebecca served on the board of the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (MAHPERD) as their Legislative Liaison from 2017-2020. Rebecca is also proud to have served as a steward for both AEEF-CWA Local 1300 and SEIU 509.
In her free time, Rebecca can be found on her bike training for the Pan-Mass Challenge or fishing for bass (or whatever bites the hook) in lakes and ponds around the South Shore.