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Meet Adam
Meet Adam
Adam Shain is a candidate for Sharon School Committee. He plans to draw on his extensive professional and volunteer experience to bring more transparency to the School Committee and to increase community engagement. He is passionate about using online tools to broaden public participation in local government and believes in the power of technology to help students, both during remote learning and when they are back in the classroom.
Adam and his wife, Michelle, have lived in Sharon for 10 years. They have 4 children: David, who will be starting 6th grade at Sharon Middle School in Fall 2020; Elizabeth, who will be starting 4th grade at Cottage Street School; Abigail, who will be starting kindergarten at Cottage Street School; and Zachary, who will be entering the 4-year-old "Busy Bee" class at Hertz Nursery School.
Adam is a levelheaded, moderate, pragmatic person. He enjoys helping and contributing to the happiness of others. Friends and family describe him as loyal, steady, and cheerful!
Adam's Background and Experience
Adam's Background and Experience
Civic Engagement in Sharon
Civic Engagement in Sharon
Adam first became engaged with town government in 2017 when Sharon's Select Board was in the process of renewing our waste disposal contract. He led a grass-roots campaign to make the process more transparent, to ensure that different vendors were considered (i.e., that the town issued a RFP), and to ensure that a solution was found that meets the needs of everyone in our town. The campaign succeeded in getting weekly recycling pick-up and a choice of different sized trash bins.
Adam currently serves on the Library Reuse Committee, which will provide a recommendation on how to best utilize the current library building if the town chooses to move forward with a new building.
Adam was a candidate for School Committee in 2019, finishing as first runner-up. He has stayed involved, attending meetings and engaging with the School Committee and remains committed to helping the Sharon Public Schools deliver exceptional education while being an outstanding partner to parents and the broader community.
Youth and Education
Youth and Education
Adam has always loved working with young people!
When Adam was in college, he worked part-time as a youth group advisor at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline, MA. He served in both administrative and educational capacities, and he learned a tremendous amount about working successfully with teens while staffing week-long retreats and weekend conventions.
Adam and his family are active members of three Sharon synagogues. There, Adam's volunteer efforts have included overseeing children’s programming on Saturday mornings and overseeing teenagers who prepare and serve snacks for the community after services. He has learned to be responsive and adaptive in managing the near-daily communication and coordination that go into these efforts.
Adam served on the board of a private school in Sharon as an independent board member (he didn’t have children in the school). During his tenure, the board went through the process of hiring a new Head of School. This process gave Adam insight into how to balance the needs and desires of parents, teachers, administration and students, while considering both educational values and budgetary realities.
Adam also volunteers for Babson College's Coaching for Leadership and Teamwork Program. Each semester, he works with college students to assess their skill set and provide mentorship based on their interests. Working with college students gives Adam continuing insight into the realities that Sharon public school students will face after graduation.
Professional Experience and Education
Professional Experience and Education
Currently, Adam is at home with his children, helping them to navigate the chaos of zoom meetings, remote learning templates and teaching "Daddy school" (topics have included the 1980s, Space, Baking and Boston Sports).
For the previous ten years, Adam has worked as a software executive with leadership roles at some of the most trusted software companies in the world, including Intuit (makers of TurboTax and QuickBooks) and Google, as well as at award-winning startups. His day-to-day centered around collecting, distilling and communicating out key information from users, front-line staff and development teams to build a shared vision across multiple stakeholders. The end result was high quality software that solved user problems. It is in these roles that Adam learned the value of both transparency and proactive engagement to ensure that everybody feels bought in to both the process and the end result.
Adam trained as a scientist with an MS in Neuroscience from Brandeis University. He later earned an MBA from Babson College (the #1 program in the world for entrepreneurship). He's experienced individualized learning and project based learning, as well as hands-on research work.
Other Volunteer Experience
Other Volunteer Experience
In Adam's spare time, he shares his love of music with the community as a tenor in Shir Rhythm, Sharon’s premiere Jewish a cappella group. They were proud to sing the national anthem at Fenway Park in June 2018!
Q: Adam, why are you running for school committee?
Q: Adam, why are you running for school committee?
A: I'm committed to providing our children with the best education possible. To that end, schools are most successful when parents are treated like partners in the educational process and the local community is actively engaged. Sharon has many smart, talented parents and other local residents, with great ideas and expertise to offer.
Those people aren’t being invited into conversation with the School Committee. Information is difficult to access, and decisions are made without gathering enough feedback.
I have the skills to increase transparency and community engagement. With my background as a software executive, I know how to leverage digital media and how to build consensus among multiple stakeholders.
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