Sharon Vandezande grew up in Ontario, Canada and moved to Michigan earning her BA in Communication Arts & Sciences with a focus in theatre and visual arts from Calvin College. In 2000, Sharon relocated to Rochester, NY to use her bachelors degree to work in production at Geva Theatre Center. Holding a deep passion for higher education, Sharon began working at RIT in 2005 spending 10 years in the classroom environment as a captionist and then moved to NTID playing an instrumental role in building renovations & budget management. During the pandemic Sharon completed her Masters in Management from the Saunders College of Business and in 2022 completed her Advanced Certificate in Project Management focusing in Agile Project Management and Design Thinking from the RIT School of Individualized Study. Currently, Sharon works with the OVPR team in the office of RIT Sponsored Research as a Research Administrator.