Sherry Flashman

Sherry Flashman has over 35 years of experience in Boston as a project leader and planner in community development and higher education. She ran a program on housing rights at Roxbury Community College and subsequently worked as a senior planner at the City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development. Later she was a consultant to nonprofit community developers in Dorchester. Her career has focused on increasing affordable housing, economic opportunities, and greenspace in Boston’s communities of color.

In addition, Sherry has been a lifelong activist for social, economic, and racial justice. In recent years she has engaged in voter participation efforts to counteract growing voter suppression tactics. She is a volunteer leader in the Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN), which provides support and advocacy for those caught up in the immigration system. Sherry co-chairs the Social Justice Committee at her synagogue and works in coalition with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) and the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA). Recent campaigns include economic equality, criminal justice reform, and police accountability.

Sherry received a doctoral degree in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her dissertation was on alternative feminist education. After graduating from Newcomb College at Tulane University, she received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship for independent study in Colombia, Israel, and England.

Sherry identifies strongly with her Sephardic Jewish ancestry through her mother, whose family emigrated from Argentina to the U.S. and in previous generations lived in Tangier, Morocco. She has two adult children.