Sister Sharon Slear advances passion for women’s empowerment

It’s no stretch to call School Sister of Notre Dame Sharon Slear a crusader for empowering women and the underdog.

A lifelong educator, Sister Sharon was involved in the opening of the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore. She was also vice principal and the first woman athletic director of Bishop Walsh High School in Cumberland. She later became Notre Dame of Maryland University’s first dean of the School of Education, where she oversaw the school’s expansion to include 11 master’s degrees and two Ph.D. programs, as well as 18 additional certification programs.

“The SSNDs are all about education,” said Sister Sharon, who just celebrated her 60th jubilee as a School Sister of Notre Dame and now serves as the special projects assistant to the president at Notre Dame of Maryland University. “I think it’s the most noble profession to develop the unlimited potential in each student. That’s really our mission.”

Sister Sharon grew up worshiping at St. Bernardine in West Baltimore, where she attended the parish school. She graduated from Notre Dame Preparatory School in 1961 and her initial plan was to become a doctor. She was accepted at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, but had an allergy to several antibiotics that were being used in the operating room.

In formation as a young religious sister, Sister Sharon had several teaching assignments that helped her discover her passion.

“I always wanted to do something for someone else to see them grow,” said Sister Sharon, who holds a bachelor’s degree from what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University, a master’s degree in chemistry from Villanova University and a doctorate in educational administration from Boston College.

Sister Sharon inspired her students to take chances with their careers and secure valuable internships. Sometimes, many of these female students were shy, but were able to find their voice through Sister Sharon’s mentorship. She also helped her students secure grants and financial aid to pursue careers in education.

In 1988, she was tasked with developing graduate programs in education. Notre Dame now offers undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and certificate programs in education at its Charles Street campus and seven other sites across the state. Sister Sharon spearheaded the development of the university’s first doctoral program, the Ph.D. in Instructional Leadership for Changing Populations, with the first degrees awarded in 2008. She also served as provost, chief academic officer.

Sister Sharon, who was a two-term member of the Maryland governor’s P-20 Leadership Council beginning in 2015, learned many of her life strategies from being an athlete. She played tennis with former grand slam champion Chris Evert and was an avid golfer. She always attacked the obstacles to be successful.

She also credits some of her strategies to a book, “Rare Leadership” by Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder.

“I had to take care of all the political things here to put those programs in,” Sister Sharon said. “I really believe the reason we were able to do that was being personal rather than just positional. I always made sure I went down and met the person I needed to work with. We had a conversation and we talked about what needed to be done and how it would be good for both of us.”

During her tenure, Sister Sharon led the education department as it sought and received national accreditation (CAEP) for all graduate and undergraduate education programs. Notre Dame was the first private college or university in Maryland to receive that recognition.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame also have a partnership with the Matenwa Learning Community School in Haiti. Sister Sharon visited Haiti in 2016 and became aware of the great need for quality instruction even amid great poverty. She was inspired to make a difference in Haiti and began to work with a team to develop a multi-year program that would focus on teacher training. The program, known as Train the Teacher, became a reality in the summer of 2017 when a team of four ventured to the remote island of La Gonave off the coast of Haiti.

The Train the Teacher initiative continued as the group took several more trips to La Gonave between 2017 and 2020. The national government accepts Notre Dame’s math curriculum for first through third grades with videos of how to teach and is translated into Creole.

“The national government is now looking to use our curriculum for La Gonave,” Sister Sharon said. 

In 2011, when College of Notre Dame of Maryland became Notre Dame of Maryland University and the education department became the School of Education, Sister Sharon was appointed founding dean.

“Women have such leadership opportunities and we need to have them present because they look at things in a different way than men,” Sister Sharon said. “They should want to see change.”

Fighting racism

While Sister Sharon was at Bishop Walsh High School, the boys basketball team began to become more competitive when the student population diversified. She recalled a moment when the Cumberland school was playing for a league title and she noticed racially-charged signs on the opponents’ side of the court.

She immediately told the opposing basketball coach the signs needed to be removed.

He declined.

“If they are not removed,” Sister Sharon remembered telling him, “then we won’t play.”

“You’ll lose the championship,” he retorted.

“Yes, we’ll lose the championship, but an article will be in the paper tomorrow,” the determined religious sister warned.

Sister Sharon then told the team they were not playing the game if the signs were not removed. Two of the players told her the game was more important.

She replied; “No, it isn’t. That’s dealing with your life and that’s more important than the game.”

Just moments before the scheduled tip-off, the signs were taken down.

“That was a barrier that came down,” she said.

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