Sharine graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in May, 2021 with a social justice certification.

In addition to earning her law degree, Sharine has over 17 years of experience in sales, finance, and business management, including owning multiple small businesses. 

 

During law school, Sharine conceptualized and established an expungement clinic at SCU Law, where volunteer law students and attorneys provided pro bono criminal record expungement service to low income clients. She also drafted and sponsored SB 1045, a bill that proposes to seal arrest and related records of dismissed convictions.  Sharine's other law school accomplishments include externing for the Honorable Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian at California's Sixth District Court of Appeal, working as a litigation summer associate at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw & Pittman, and representing low-income consumer law clients as a certified law student at the Alexander Community Law Center.

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The concept of Elevate Community Center was born from a research paper Sharine wrote in law school, advocating for the use of Cognitive Behavior Training in criminal justice reform. "I attended many trainings when I worked in corporate America. They were called leadership training or personal development training, but it boiled down to cognitive behavior training," says Sharine. "I thought if we combined the skills I learned from leadership training or personal development training with skills taught in traditional CBT to address trauma, well, that would be transformative."