About Nurturing Families

Sherry Noud founded Nurturing Families in 2008 to organize community efforts to support families in need in Fairfax County. Sherry has a Master’s in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Suffolk University. She is also licensed to teach grades K-8. Since Sherry returned to Northern Virginia in 2001, she has been a senior manager at a local community-based organization, an FCPS school social worker coordinating community engagement efforts at the division-level, an FCPS teacher in non-traditional school programs and a management analyst supporting eviction prevention efforts with Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services.

Career highlights include co-founding a community service learning program at an urban university, developing a program to help families experiencing homelessness secure housing, co-leading the development of the Annandale Pyramid Back-to-School Fair and bringing the successful model to other pyramids resulting in back-to-school support for thousands of students, and assisting in eviction prevention efforts including the creation of a Landlord Portal and the distribution of $90M in rent assistance during the pandemic. Through these experiences, Sherry has met many families and individuals whose struggles to pay rent, buy a coat for their kids, and equip their kids for school are largely invisible to the general public. In a county with a median income of $127,866 in 2022, it is easy to miss the thousands of families living in poverty. Through Nurturing Families, Sherry seeks to harness the generosity and kindness of people with the means to give to support targeted efforts to address unmet needs.

Sherry lives in Burke with her husband, Shawn, their three children, and their two cats. Her hobbies include supporting her daughters’ extracurricular activities, volunteering, traveling and reading.  

Sherry’s commitment to serving others comes from a variety of influences including her faith, her childhood experience as a member of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (Masonic organization), her experience as a City Year Corps Member in Boston, and her experience as a Lifetime Girl Scout. She believes in the interconnectedness of all people and is inspired by quotes such as, “The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others,” by Albert Schweitzer.