Biographical Statement for Shari Silberstein

Shari Silberstein is Co-Director of Equal Justice USA/Quixote Center (www.ejusa.org). EJUSA is a national leader in the movement to halt executions, providing hands-on technical assistance, grassroots organizing support, and capacity building to state and local campaigns across the country.

Shari served as a member of the team that won the nation's second moratorium on executions in Maryland in 2002, and helped spearhead the effort to block reinstatement of New York's death penalty in 2005. She travels across the country conducting workshops and strategic planning sessions for state moratorium and abolition campaigns.

Prior to joining EJUSA, Shari worked as the Programs Director for the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) and volunteered with a number of social justice organizations, including a documentation center for political asylum applicants; a help line for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered youth; a tutoring center in East Harlem, New York; and a foreign policy analysis collective.

She has a Master's Degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor's Degree in Television, Radio, and Film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She worked as an independent filmmaker in New York City from 1994-1997.