About Reverend Sharon Risher
I’m just a little geechie girl from Charleston, SC trying to make a difference in the world
-Rev. Risher
Rev. Sharon Washington Risher was born in Charleston, South where she attended the public schools and graduated from Charles A. Brown High School and graduated from Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Sharon heard the call to ministry in 2002 while attending St. Paul Presbyterian Church and left North Carolina to attend Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas in the spring 2003. Sharon graduated from of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, TX, in 2007.
Sharon was a Staff Chaplain, Trauma Specialist, with Parkland Hospital of Dallas, TX, where she has been employed. She served on several committees at the hospital. Sharon served Rice Chapel AME Church, as Associate Pastor for Congregational Care, she preached, and led the Women’s ministries of the church until April, 2015.
On June 17th, 2015, a horrific tragedy happened; Sharon learned her dear mother, Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance, was killed in Charleston, SC, at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, along with 8 other people, which also included two cousins and a childhood friend.
Since that time, Sharon has been very outspoken about the nation’s gun laws and is one of the spokespersons for the grassroots advocacy group Everytown Survivor Network and Moms Demand Gun Sense In America. Sharon is also a leading spokesperson calling for an end to the federal death penalty with DeathPenaltyAction.org, even in the case of the white supremacist terrorist who killed her aunt, cousins, friend and five others. That killer is now on the federal death row at Terre Haute. Sharon supports the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act of 2021.
She has appeared on CNN , Good morning America, Roland Martin's News One, CBS and other national news outlet. Sharon had been interviewed and by Time Magazine, Marie-Claire , Essence, Texas Monthly magazine, written articles for a number of print media, such as Vogue and VOX. She has appeared on radio shows, such as, Guardian- BBC radio, PBS, NPR among others. She also has visited the White House and has witnessed President Barack Obama sign executive orders that pertained to new gun laws.
Sharon has also been a guest speaker for several Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial events. As a member of Everytown, Sharon has testified in Salem, Oregon in front of state congress on behalf of HR 4147-bill introduced to expand the 3 day waiting period for a gun purchase. She carried that same energy before the South Carolina judicial committee, in favor of a new law called the Charleston Loophole. Sharon is a sought after speaker traveling across the US sharing her story of loss, forgiveness, racism and gun law reforms.
Sharon has two grown children, Howard Brandon and Aja’ Sharnee’, who both reside in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sharon’s hobbies includes, reading, cross-stitching, growing tropical plants, listening to a variety of music and being a mother to her fur-dog- child, Puff-Daddy.