Monica Sheppard

Ms. Sheppard is the Co-Director of TRUE’s Emerging Equity Scholar (EES) Program, which provides holistic mentorship through wellbeing support and professional development. In this role Ms. Sheppard is responsible for directing the wellbeing component of the mentoring program, training and supporting the Wellbeing Mentors, co-creating the EES Curriculum, and participating in other essential program functions such as the EES Speaker Series and Soft Skills sessions.

Aside from EES, Ms. Sheppard’s current projects include work as the Qualitative Data Collection Lead in a project aimed to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system of a Pennsylvania county, and a Site Liaison and Assistant Task Lead for a research project in support of advancing pretrial policy and research.

In addition to project work, Ms. Sheppard is involved in several initiatives aimed at addressing and improving RTI’s mission for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB). Her position as the EES Wellbeing Director and TRUE’s Wellbeing Liaison has positioned her to collaborate on future research studies that center wellbeing, and strategy sessions with different groups at RTI to think through how best to support RTI employee wellbeing.