Shara Garwood Sanders
Governance
Shara Garwood Sanders is the Executive Director of Leadership DeKalb, an attorney, and a community volunteer who has been serving DeKalb County for years. A native of Orlando, Florida, Shara received degrees from Presbyterian College (B.A., English, 1992) and Florida State University (B.S., Biology, 1995) before moving to Atlanta in 1996 to attend Emory School of Law (J.D., 1999).
After graduating from Emory School of Law with honors, Shara practiced labor & employment and general litigation at Jackson Lewis, Hunton Williams, and Rogers & Hardin. In 2010, Shara stepped away from law to focus on family, returning to practice in January 2018 before accepting the Leadership DeKalb Executive Director position in December 2023.
Shara is also a graduate of Leadership DeKalb Class of 2017 and has served on the Junior League of DeKalb County (President 2017-2019), St. Martin’s Episcopal School Board (Chair 2022-2024), DeKalb Library Foundation (President 2022-2023), and many other community organizations.