Sharity Sommer rejoined the Foundation in June 2023 as a program officer. She started as an intern in 2009 and over the next 11 years held various roles in communication, grants management and programs. Before returning, she spent a couple of years furthering her education in nutrition and dietetics.

Sharity’s focus areas have been the Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs, Individual Artist Award program, and Foundation partnership programs, such as the time-limited Premera Rural Health Care Fund, The Alaska Community Foundation Strengthening Organizations program, and Museums Alaska’s programs to purchase art and maintain collections. 

Sharity currently serves on the board of Facing Foster Care in Alaska, a statewide network of current and former foster youth focused on advocacy, training and peer support. The Alaska Journal of Commerce named Sharity one of Alaska’s Top Forty Under Forty young professionals in 2021.

Sharity grew up in Interior Alaska, graduating from the now-named Sidney C. Huntington School in Galena, and venturing south to the University of Alaska Anchorage for a Bachelor of Arts in international studies with a minor in psychology.