Get To Know Us: Lisa Sherwood

Every organization has a variety of people who are important in the various functions that they perform. However, we all know that most operations have one person who is essential because they have their fingers on the pulse (or in the pie) of just about everything that happens. In the SVdP Council Office, that person is Administrative Executive Assistant, Lisa Sherwood.

Lisa came to us after 32 years working for the Family Court of Allegheny County. It began one day at a Zumba class when the Human Resource Director for SVdP at the time told Lisa about an opening that she thought Lisa would be good for. The HR Director added that SVdP feels like a family more than what Lisa experienced working for the County. Lisa ended up interviewing for the SVdP position and, eight years later, she is still here doing her thing(s) for us.

Lisa grew up in the Pittsburgh area in Wilkinsburg and Penn Hills, so she knows the region and its people well. And people, or actually helping them, is what she likes most about her job. Lisa embraces that and says that she treats those she encounters with the same care and compassion “as if they were family.”  

This desire to care for and help others was inspired partly by her faith but also by a great aunt who taught her about what things are important and how to live a good life. Lisa had schoolteachers, too, who blessed her with ideas about character that went beyond simple classroom instruction. Those things and people contributed to her desire to connect with and help “the least of those among us” just as Jesus called us to do. And while that is incredibly rewarding, Lisa says, it also is often the most challenging part of her job. She feels the frustration of not being able to help every single person as she would like to.

Lisa also loves working with her colleagues, which is important in an operation with limited staff who all work so closely together. And speaking of working together, Lisa says that, in a perfect world, the work of SVdP would be integrated with similar work that is done through churches and volunteers of other denominations to ensure the goodness we all pursue is carried out most efficiently and effectively. Something to think about for the future?

Thanks for your service, Lisa!