Episode 24 With Sheri Brazley

Sheri Brazley is a native Chicagoan. She attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and received a BA degree in Psychology. After graduation, she started a career working with Developmentally Disabled children for the State of Illinois and later went on to work for the City of Chicago for 25 years. During her tenure at the city, she wore many hats; she spent 10 years working in the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities where she was responsible for making sure that the city’s public events would be accommodating to people with disabilities. Prior to retirement in 2015, Sheri spent 15 years in the City's Health Department as the Assistant to the Director of Public Information where she had an opportunity to create public messaging and marketing tools on health topics. Throughout her professional career, Sheri always had a love for cooking and has maintained a successful small catering business that is still thriving. When she retired from the city, she knew that she wanted to recreate herself, so she enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts with the primary aim of pursing a new career teaching people how to cook nutritious meals to maintain a healthy lifestyle. She completed all the coursework for the Certificate Program with a 4.0 GPA — all of this during her 50s. Upon completing Le Cordon Bleu, Sheri became aware of the organization Common Threads developed by famed chef Art Smith. It was from her LCB Instructor and mentor Chef Daniel John that she learned about the mission of Common Threads. Through Common Threads, Sheri now services three schools. Additionally, Sheri has created a very popular culinary program for seniors (age 60+) entitled Snacking Around the World. This cooking demo program allows seniors to experience the food, history and culture of countries like Mexico, Thailand, China, Italy, Spain and countless others. If you would like to connect with Sheri, she can be found on Instagram as Chef_braz.