Sheri Dunn Berry

Sheri Dunn Berry is a Los Angeles native and nonprofit leader with more than 30 years of experience in policy, program, and organizational development with social justice and faith-based organizations and networks. She served on the Irvine Foundation’s Leadership Awards Selection Committee for five years and was elected to the board in January 2024.

Sheri is currently on the leadership team as a Strategist with the Wend Collective, a social impact fund founded by James Walton. From 2013 to 2020, she was the first-ever Director of Programs for Community Partners, a Los Angeles‑based fiscal sponsor and civic intermediary organization. There she served on the leadership team, led the fiscal sponsorship program of over 180 projects, and guided the organization’s strategic initiatives and intermediary partnerships.

Sheri previously served as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation, where she guided grantmaking to faith‑based organizations with community programs in Los Angeles County. As the founding Executive Director of the National Community Building Network, she was inspired by hundreds of community practitioners, activists, and researchers in a peer‑learning network focused on social and economic equity.

Sheri has also held policy and development positions at RCNO Training Center, Children Now, and the Urban Strategies Council, and has consulted on program, policy, and resource development for a range of nonprofits and foundations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for PolicyLink.

Sheri attended LAUSD schools and received a BA in Public Affairs from UC Berkeley and an MPA from the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy.