Sharon G. Pierson Scholarship
Bernard J. Milano, a former member of the Executive Committee of the Ramapo College Foundation, established two endowments in honor of his wife, Sharon Gay Pierson.
Dr. Pierson’s early educational and professional interests were in literature and theater, having graduated with honors from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After doing graduate work in Shakespearean studies in England and working in the entertainment industry, she transitioned to business and worked as a Management Consultant for Merrill Lynch in the Relocation Management Division, which handled human resource issues for companies experiencing relocation due to new business directions, mergers, or acquisitions.
Dr. Pierson retired from Merrill Lynch when she and Mr. Milano moved to New Jersey, where she enjoyed serving in leadership positions for non-profit organizations, such as the Junior League of Bergen County, the Boy Scouts of America, the Allendale Foundation for Educational Excellence, and Bergen County Academies, among others.
She earned her master’s degree in curriculum and teaching at Columbia University, Teacher’s College, her master’s in philosophy, and her PhD in History and Education from Columbia University, Teachers College. Dr. Pierson has presented her research at numerous academic conferences around the nation, such as the History of Education Society, American Educational Research Association, and the John Dewey Centennial, and published Laboratory of Learning, with Peter Lang Publishing (2014), as well as contributed chapters, including Schools of Tomorrow, Schools of Today: Revisited, and Using Past As Prologue (Information Age Publishing, 2016). Sharon Pierson teaches courses in the Communication Arts program in Ramapo’s School of Contemporary Arts. The Pierson Scholarships commemorate Dr. Pierson’s “love of teaching and her commitment to Ramapo’s students,” and benefit students majoring in Communication Arts.