Executive Leader

Dr. Sharon McDaniel, MPA, Ed. D.

Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer

A Second Chance Inc.

The agency’s President, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, is Dr. Sharon McDaniel. She possesses a Bachelor of Administration of Justice from The Pennsylvania State University; a Master of Public Administration from the University of Pittsburgh; a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the Heinz School for Public Policy, Carnegie-Mellon University; Doctorate of Education from NOVA Southeastern University (Concentration: Organizational Behavior, Leadership and Management of Children and Youth Programs); Inaugural Class of the University of Pittsburgh Leadership Institute; Leadership Pittsburgh, Class XVIII; and a graduate of the Cosmetology Program at Empire Beauty School. More recently, Dr. McDaniel was a guest lecturer at the University of Barcelona (Spain), and fellow colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh and Oxford University (England) presented on Intergenerational Issues in United States of America, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Dr. McDaniel has also taken courses in Non-profit management and Business at Harvard University and University of Chicago-Graduate School of Business.

Dr. McDaniel has been employed in the child welfare arena for over 25 years.  Her prior work experience includes positions as caseworker, supervisor and court liaison for Allegheny County Children Youth and Family Services, as well as caseworker and program director for the Black Adoption Services Program of Three Rivers Adoption Council.
Currently, Dr. McDaniel serves as a Trustee of Casey Family Programs and Jim Casey Youth Opportunity Initiative. She also serves on the Board of Advisors of Casey Family Services.  Dr. McDaniel has been a long-term board member of the Black Administrators in Child Welfare.  Additionally, Dr. McDaniel serves on the Pennsylvania Quality Assurance Committee, and is a member of the Allegheny County Children’s Cabinet.

Previously, Dr. McDaniel served as Co-Chair of the Statewide Task Force of Kinship Care and was also Co-Facilitator for the Allegheny County Foster Care and Kinship Initiative.  Additionally, she served as a Founding member of the local Court Appointed Special Advocate program and Advisory Board member of Allegheny County Children and Youth Services. Furthermore, she was a panel member for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services National Advisory Kinship Panel, assembled under the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Dr. McDaniel was also an inaugural member of the Casey National Center for Resource Family Support Advisory Board, and a Children’s Defense Fund Advisor.
Dr. McDaniel has served as co-investigator/author of “Subsidized Legal Guardianship:  A Permanency Planning Option Study for Children Placed in Kinship Care” and “Subsidized Legal Guardianship Update” along with Anthony Sosso, Jr., Esq. This research project’s ultimate aim was to develop a subsidized legal guardianship proposal for the State of Pennsylvania, which, at that time, had no such legal status in its legislation.  This research, which commenced around the State of Pennsylvania, was used by national organizations to form their positions and proposals on Subsidized Legal Guardianship.

Dr. McDaniel has been a finalist for the Fitz Award for the Advancement of Women. She has also received the Nubabian Queen Mother Award, as well as the Girl Scouts of Southwestern Pennsylvania Award, among other recognitions. In 2006, Dr. McDaniel received the Villaria Bullard Black Administrator of the Year Award.  Dr. McDaniel is also a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

As evidenced by the above, Dr. McDaniel has vast educational, professional and volunteer experience in the child welfare system, locally, statewide and nationally; through training, conferences, and publications, she is sharing her knowledge and expertise on the national level with others.