NorCal 2015 Fall Seminar: Society For The Blind: More Than What You See

Shari Roeseler

Shari Roeseler is the Executive Director/CEO of Society for the Blind, which provides education and services to people who are low-vision and blind in a 26-county region. Headquartered in Sacramento, Society for the Blind serves over 3,000 individuals each year in direct service and another 4,000 through outreach and its national Access News telephone reader program. Society for the Blind has a staff of 40, half of whom are blind or low-vision.

Shari is a respected leader in the nonprofit sector. Prior to joining Society for the Blind she served as Executive Director for St. Anthony Foundation, one of the largest nonprofit social service agencies in San Francisco with a staff of 130 and an annual budget of $15 million. Shari served for nine years as the Vice President of Resource Development for the West Region of Mercy Housing a well-known national non-profit affordable housing organization. She was responsible for California, Washington, Idaho and Utah.

Roeseler has been committed to community service throughout her career. In 2006 she was selected to participate in a two-week international program at the United Nations in New York focusing on women’s economic development and HIV/AIDS education and services in developing countries.

She has a B.A. in Social Work, Sociology, and Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters in Ethics/Bio-Ethics from Santa Clara UniversityJesuit School of Theology.

Shari has conducted numerous workshops on annual fundraising programs, board development, capital campaigns and proposal writing for the Non Profit Resource Center, the Sacramento Academy of Fundraising, and has served as a consultant to Dignity Health/Mercy Healthcare Sacramento, The Sisters of Mercy-Burlingame, Mercy International Association and various non-profit organizations in California.

She has served on non-profit boards including Capitol Public Radio, the NPR affiliate in Sacramento, CA and St. Mary’s Medical Center, a CHW hospital in Reno, NV. She is currently a member of the Ethics Committee for Sutter Health Medical Center in Sacramento.

Shari is an avid cyclist and also holds a second degree black belt in Kenpo Karate.

Shane Snyder

As Director of Programs at Society for the Blind, Shane Snyder oversees the educational programs at the Society. He is responsible for curriculum development, instructor certifications and professional development and he coordinates enrollment of new students with the Department of Rehabilitation.

His association with Society for the Blind began in 2005 as a client seeking vocational rehabilitation services. In March, 2010, he returned to Society for the Blind as a client and began volunteering for the agency. He was hired as an instructor for the Senior IMPACT Project in October, 2010 and in January 2011 was promoted to the position of Senior Program Manager. In late 2012 Shane completed a three month intensive program at the Colorado School for the Blind earning his credentials as an Orientation and Mobility Instructor. In 2013 Shane was named Director of Programs at the Society.

Prior to working at Society for the Blind, Shane worked as a paralegal and later became a high school English teacher. He taught in the Sacramento City Unified School district for ten years. Shane holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Davis and a teaching credential in English and Music from CSU-Sacramento. He is a San Francisco Bay Area native who grew up in the Sierra foothills near Grass Valley and Nevada City.