MEET SHEILA
Raised in rural Wisconsin, Sheila grew up in a tightly-knit farming community with down-to-earth people and a fundamental commitment to family, honesty, and a good day’s hard work. With this as her bedrock, Sheila began a lifetime of service.
Even from her very early years, Sheila was drawn to knowledge, diversity, challenge, and new experiences. She and her siblings are some of the very few hometown community members to ever achieve higher education degrees—and to her knowledge, Sheila is the only resident to ever hold a Ph.D.
Sheila has always been willing to jump into something new—and always with full-hearted dedication. If there is a way to provide better service or improve quality of life, you will find Sheila at the head of the effort—joyfully, efficiently, and successfully moving the project along.
Sheila has always been fueled by twin passions: understanding how the body works and helping people. So her choice to pursue a career in Public Health came naturally. She loved her early days as a nurse, making house calls in rural Wisconsin.
When she moved to San Francisco to pursue her Ph.D. in Nursing, Sheila reveled in the fantastic communities and people. “I’m not in Shiocton, Wisconsin anymore,” she remembers thinking. She jumped immediately into student body activities, where she met her future husband, Mitch, while they both served on the Graduate Student Association. She says proudly, “I signed up for every committee because they all had value and I felt I had something to give.”
She and her new husband Mitch then moved to Chicago. There, she provided in-home nursing services to families on Chicago’s South Side, was a professor at Rush University and worked on her first political campaign—Carol Moseley Braun for Senate. She reflects with great fondness on the kindness and “feeling of community” she found during her South Side time.
In 1993, Sheila and Mitch joined our Davis community to raise their family. Once again, Sheila jumped in with her whole heart, becoming President of the PTA, helping to lead multiple successful School Parcel Tax Measures, serving on the School Board for two terms, and becoming an inaugural Yolo County First 5 Commissioner. While raising her 3 young children Sheila completed her PhD in Nursing focusing on case management of older adults in the home and public policy. Once her kids left school to pursue their own paths, Sheila founded the Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance—to promote the well-being of older adults through education, collaboration, and advocacy—where she served as Executive Director for 13 years. Sheila continued to serve her community as chair of Unitrans Advisory Committee and City of Davis Human Relations Commission, working on the recommendations to Reimagine Public Safety.
Sheila currently works as Deputy to Supervisor Jim Provenza. As Supervisor Provenza’s Deputy she has focused on constituent services, planning and funding for a second Yolo Library in south Davis, health and safety including climate action, fire safety, Health Council, Mental Health Services Board, and Mental Health Services Act funding, housing for young families experiencing homelessness. She has continued her work for Yolo older adults including expanding the Yolo Adult Day Health Program, education on emergency preparation, supports for aging caregivers of persons with disabilities. With her trademark mix of tenacious optimism, endless compassion, tireless work ethic, and driving efficiency, she continues to support Davis families and serve on local, statewide, and national boards and commissions. Her work was been honored by Congressman John Garamendi and Senator Bill Dodd, each of whom has presented Sheila with a Women of the Year Award.
Optimism • Hard Work • Caring • Effectiveness
Experience & Community Engagement
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PhD Nursing-Home Care and Public Policy, University of California-San Francisco
MS Nursing-Community Health Specialist, University of California-San Francisco
BS Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Founder/Executive Director, Yolo Healthy Aging Alliance
Member, City of Davis Human Relations Commission
Member, Davis - Unitrans Advisory Committee
President, Explorit Science Center Board of Directors
Member, Davis Chamber of Commerce
Member, Davis Joint Unified School Board (2 terms), President 2 years
President, Yolo County School Board Association
Member, successful Measure C Campaign Committee for Davis schools
Co-Chair, successful Measure A Campaign Committee for Davis schools
Co-Chair, successful Measure W Campaign Committee for Davis schools
Co-Chair, successful Measure Q Campaign Committee for Davis schools
President, Valley Oak Elementary School, PTA
Inaugural Member, Saving California Communities - Citizen Action Committee for Constitutional Reform
Member, International Order of Oddfellows - Davis Lodge
Member, Davis Democratic Club
Chair, Davis Community Church Nursery School Board of Directors
Member, Yolo County Budget and Finance Sub-Committee
Chair, Yolo County Health Council
Chair, Indigent Health Oversight Sub-Committee
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Founding Member, Yolo County First 5 Commission (Children and Families)Yolo County In Home Supportive Services Advisory Board
Yolo Aging and Disability Resource Connection Advisory Board
Treasurer, Golden State Nurses Foundation, Board of Directors
American Association of University Women
Area 4 Agency on Aging Governing Board
American Public Health Association
American Nurses Association
Director at Large, Board of Directors, ANA\California
American Nurse Association, House of Delegates
Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society
Nurses for National Health Care
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Intern Mentor, CSU-Sacramento BS-Gerontology Students
Intern Mentor, UC Davis Masters in Public Health Students
Advisor, Students Teaching AIDS to Students, Internship Program UCD
Faculty, California State University-Sacramento
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Senator Bill Dodd’s Woman of the Year Award
Congressman Garamendi’s Woman of the Year Award
Nancy Seyden Advocacy Award-Yolo IHAA Advisory Committee
NIH-NINR Training Grant
UCSF School of Nursing Century Club Research Award
UCSF Graduate Division Research Grant
University of California Regents Fellowship