Sharon Grosfeld was first elected to the Maryland House of Delegates representing District 18 in Montgomery County in 1994 and served on the House Judiciary Committee until 2002, when she was elected to the Maryland Senate. As a Delegate on the Judiciary Committee, she was named Chairwoman of the Criminal Law Subcommittee and was also regarded as an expert on family law matters. Sharon has been a family lawyer since 1987, first working as an advocate for battered women at the House of Ruth in Baltimore, then in private practice at Hyatt, Peters & Weber in Annapolis for over 17 years. She currently an attorney with the law offices of Paula Peters, P.A.

As a Maryland State Senator, Sharon served on the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee and on the Education Subcommittee, the Environment Subcommittee, and the Ethics and Election Law Subcommittee. She was appointed by Senate President Mike Miller to serve on the Joint Committee on Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas and the Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families.

During the twelve years that she served in the General Assembly, Sharon sponsored numerous pieces of legislation, but focused most of her efforts on bills to protect victims of domestic violence, to address women’s health and reproductive rights and to clean up the environment. She has been successful in achieving many positive changes in Maryland law that have improved the lives of thousands of women, children and families.

Sharon has been a strong advocate of a woman’s right to choose and in 1998 successfully sponsored the first law in the nation to require health insurance companies to cover prescriptive contraception. She was invited to testify before a U.S. Senate committee considering similar legislation on the federal level and was a featured speaker in New York to assist in their efforts to pass similar legislation. Most recently, Sharon was the Choice Advocate Honoree at the October 18, 2007 annual fundraising gala of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland.

Sharon was a highly respected member of the General Assembly, and continues to be known as a tireless advocate for the rights of the poor and disabled. While serving in the House of Delegates, on two separate occasions Sharon was able to persuade her colleagues to restore critical funding to assist disabled children which had been removed from the budget. As a senator she sponsored and was able to get legislation passed that provided much needed assistance to individuals with disabilities who wanted to live outside of institutions.

In addition to her legislative service, Sharon was appointed by former Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan to serve on the Montgomery County Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission. She has also been a member of former Attorney General Joe Curran’s & former Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s Family Violence Council. In the following Administration in 2002, Sharon was appointed to serve on the Governor’s Commission to Study Affordable Housing, and also on the Task Force to Study Efficiency in Procurement.

Sharon has won numerous awards from women’s groups, disability organizations and environmental groups, and is often requested to speak at conferences on a variety of issues.

At the end of her Senate term in 2006, Sharon chose not to run for reelection and instead started working at the Democratic National Committee on Capitol Hill as the Executive Director of the Women’s Leadership Forum. From 2006 to 2008, Sharon worked to get more Democratic women engaged in politics at all levels and on GOTV efforts focused upon women, particularly young women. She provided training to women interested in running for office and was a frequent keynote speaker at many conferences around the country.

Sharon is an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management where she teaches courses on “Political Leadership,” “Leadership in Public Office” and “Women & Political Leadership.”