Sharon Ricks, M.A.

Sharon Ricks, M.A., advances policies, establishes partnerships and engages in strategic communication to promote the adoption of a health equity mindset and the activation of health equity principles at Dell Medical School.

Ricks is an innovative health leader and the former regional health administrator for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS Region 4), where she had the primary responsibility for leading and coordinating internal and external strategies that promoted health equity across HHS divisions and in service to 65 million Americans throughout the eight southeastern states.

Prior to her service in the HHS Atlanta Region 4 office, she worked in Washington, D.C., at the HHS Office on Women’s Health, where she developed and implemented a health improvement program used by community organizations across the nation to improve women’s health. She broadly expanded the promotion of, and conducted the first evaluation for, National Women’s Health Week and implemented the first National Women’s Check-Up Day.

She also had lead responsibility for facilitating efforts of state and regional women’s health coordinators to deliver women’s health programming at the local level. She has also worked at three institutes within the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, as a technical writer and public affairs specialist.