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Sherri Lander Smith

Trust Your Creative Ideas

Snapshot

Sherri Lander Smith is a synergistic motivator for positive change, utilizing her extensive background in education, practical business experience, and abundant energy. Viewing personal growth as a life-long process of questioning and discovery, Sherri is dedicated to helping others realize their unique gifts and talents and finding creative solutions as they pursue and sustain the work they love.

Entrepreneur – Sherri owns and operates Lander Creative, LLC, a consultancy dedicated to encouraging, implementing, and promoting client projects and programs related to business transformation, community health, artistic pursuits, and rethinking education.

Working with a select portfolio of individuals and businesses, Sherri has created national promotions with entities such as The Grammy Foundation, Yahoo!, JetBlue Airways, Hilton, and Sharp, “Dream in You.” She has been featured on the television shows “In the Mind” and “What’s Going On C’ville” and in print and online publications, including New Dominion Magazine, Open Roads Magazine, Family Education Network, the Childcare Information Exchange, Homeschool.com, Forbes, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine and Homeschool.Life.

A strategist, coach, and project manager with an emphasis on innovation and establishing ethical and trust-based business cultures, Sherri’s clients range from education, corporate, non-profit arts, and community organizations to groups and individuals pursuing artistic and entrepreneurial endeavors. Sherri teaches entrepreneur courses at the community college level.

Speaker / Facilitator – Sherri is a featured speaker and seminar presenter at business conferences, self-empowerment workshops, and arts & educational events. Sherri is a recipient of the J.C. Penney Award for Community Service and has provided administrative, community development and strategic planning services working with select individuals, companies, government agencies and served on the boards of many non-profit organizations, including but not limited to the Virginia Oyster Trail, Virginia Organizing, Virginia Health and Environment Project, Winchester Musica Viva, Virginians for the Arts, American Craft Week, the Artisans Center of Virginia/Artisan Trail Network, Montebello Clean Mountain Coalition, Rethinking Education, the Wellness Center, Schaffenburg Ballet Academy as well as numerous communities across the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

Artist Services – As a recording and performing artists, Sherri and her husband Richard operate “Azurat Studio” to meet an ever-broadening spectrum of artist’s needs. From recording, producing, managing, and raising awareness, they work with artists and performers of all ages to encourage creativity and build community and economic stability around cultural ideals and artistic endeavors. Sherri’s specialties include assisted management, booking services and marketing/promotion strategies as well as consultation/coaching to help independant artists self-manage until such a time they become appealing to labels, agents and expansive touring possibilities. Also a vocalist, drummer and pastel, pen & ink artist, she continues to explore her creative passions.

Educator – Sherri is the owner, author, and inspiration behind The Genius Center (aka GenieU ® ), an online education resource created to assist parents and teachers as they strive to understand a child’s unique gifts and talents while customizing an education respectful of the dynamics of family, school, and community. Sherri believes that children are innately capable of self-directing their learning. Their potential knows no bounds when provided with the freedom to explore, open communication pathways, honesty, and respect from those who guide them,

Sherri has coached numerous families as they sought to rethink their children’s education, offering curriculum guidance, project development, home-to-school resources, portfolio assessment, and advice to high school students on college admissions. Working with children each year, she taught at the Tandem Friends School’s Spectrum Program for 17 years, AIM True Arts for three years, directed/facilitated “Latte House” productions at Live Arts Theatre, and continues to teach creative arts & theatre during the summer at the Village School in Charlottesville, VA. She is known for her innovative “Project Learning Works!” program “Box City – Creative Cardboard Civics” (© 1996-Present), recently publishing the program’s introductory course module “The Wonders of Bread” (© 2020) as a bonus feature to her co-authored online book: “Homeschool Survival Guide for Parents Who Never Wanted to Homeschool.”

Sherri has served in leadership and as an advisor to many prominent educational institutions and publications. She was a Trainer of Early Childhood Professionals for the Federal Child Care Block Grant program and directed an Early Childhood Day School for seven years. Sherri served as Advocacy Chair on the Executive Board of the Tarrant County Youth Collaboration; V.P. of the Ft. Worth Association for the Education of Young Children; Homeschool Advisor to Keystone National High School; and Sales and Marketing Director for Homeschool.com. She founded the Tarrant Home Education Association, the first “open” support group for families in Fort Worth, Texas, and was a co-owner of the national Rethinking Education Conference.

Author – Sherri has published numerous articles and is a contributing education writer. A few of her credits include “Helping Parents Understand” (NAEYC, 1996), “Homeschooling for Success: How Parents Can Create a Superior Education for Their Child” (Time Warner, 2002), “What the Rest of Us Can Learn from Homeschooling” (Three Rivers Press, 2003), “The Genius Center: A Safe Haven for Your Child’s Genius” (©2003) the “Homeschool Survival Guide for Parents Who Never Wanted to Homeschool” (Homeschool.Life,2020), the “Summer Survival Guide for Parents and Children Suffering from a Homeschool Hangover” (Homeschool.Life, 2020) and “Project Learning Works” (©1996-Present). For her extensive contribution to the homeschooling movement, nationally renowned Pearson Education, Inc. noted Sherri as one of “Homeschooling’s Top 10 Movers and Shakers.”

Parent – Sherri and her husband Richard have 3 three children, two of whom were “unschooled” and all, now adults, are living happy, prosperous, interest-led lives… one is father of two and an entrepreneur with a contracting business, the second is a mother of one, teacher and business administrator at a private school in addition to serving as a self-help coach, and the third is a father of one, a corporate project manager specializing in fabrication and performing artist/composer with his own recording and production studio.

Ecoist – Sherri advocates sustainable practices both personally and in business. She was co-founder of the Montebello Clean Mountain Coalition and the Virginia Health and Environment Project, which encourages reduced pesticide use, especially in schools and areas where children may be affected. Having owned a certified organic farm and now practicing permaculture in their home gardens, Sherri and her family continue to support “clean” growing principles that encourage market success for small farms.

Philanthropist – Sherri donates considerable services to non-profits, entrepreneurs, educators, and families. From providing community development advisory, strategic planning, and facilitation services to administrative and marketing support, Sherri has opened doors and instilled many collaborative partnerships and initiatives. As co-founder of Dream In You ®, partnering with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, Sherri launched the National Dream Job Contest.

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