Sharon Pickering-Polzin started her career at the Fox River Area Girl Scouts, then spent 10 years with Hoffman, LLC, which broadened her skill set for a return to nonprofits. She took on the CFO role for the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes about two weeks prior to the merger of six Girl Scout councils into the new organization. “This work was some of the most difficult of my career, yet tremendously rewarding.”
Pickering-Polzin moved into her role at the YMCA about nine years ago, leading a team of 23 staff members in transforming the nonprofit’s operations. “We moved from a 15-year-old membership program, fund development and accounting system and outdated processes to a modern, efficient and member-friendly system,” she says. Additionally, the organization made significant improvements to its wage scale, improving its ability to recruit and retain staff.
Pickering-Polzin is passionate about equity and inclusion and wants “to ensure my children grow up in a loving community where our family is accepted, welcomed and wanted — just like any other family.”
