{"id":1012,"date":"2016-06-17T19:27:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T19:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2025-07-26T17:21:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T21:21:51","slug":"margery-leveen-sher-69","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/margery-leveen-sher-69\/","title":{"rendered":"Margery Leveen Sher \u201969"},"content":{"rendered":"

M<\/strong><\/span>argery Leveen Sher \u201969<\/strong> always has been keenly aware of the characters, dramas, and humor of everyday life. Even as a high school student, she\u2019d listen, observe, and jot down anecdotes about classroom goings-on and share them with friends.<\/p>\n

Now, after 40 years in the corporate and nonprofit worlds, Sher plans to become what she calls a full-time \u201cnoticer.\u201d The longtime work\/life balance and corporate social responsibility expert stepped down in April as the founding executive director of the Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation, a nonprofit that works to provide healthcare to uninsured children in Fairfax, Virginia. Calling herself the \u201cChief Noticing Officer\u201d for \u201cThe Did Ya Notice? Project,\u201d she\u2019s launching a new career as a motivational speaker, humorous writer, and consultant who aims to make mindfulness a daily part of our personal and professional lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a career that was very satisfying, but I feel like I\u2019m really getting back to my roots,\u201d the Washington, D.C., resident says.<\/p>\n

Mindfulness in the workplace leads to greater innovation, better teamwork, better leaders, and a kinder culture, she adds. \u201cLife is more than a checklist; I want to get the world to be \u2018noticers.\u2019 People will be more effective both in the workplace and at home if they notice simple solutions and patterns of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Goucher, Sher majored in education. But in some ways, she learned as much outside the classroom as in it. Her undergraduate years\u2014heavily influenced by the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, and the Feminist Movement\u2014 were transformative. \u201cWhat I learned at Goucher was real critical thinking,\u201d she says. \u201cIn college, if you\u2019re lucky, you learn things you can\u2019t even articulate. It just becomes a part of your personal culture. I just became a whole lot more aware of things: a better \u2018noticer\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating, Sher taught for two years in the New Jersey public school system. She then earned a master\u2019s degree in developmental psychology from Rutgers University, which eventually led to an executive directorship of a child care program in Northern Virginia. In 1985, she and a colleague founded a consulting firm that advised corporations and government agencies on childcare and work\/life balance issues. Their projects included developing child care and work\/life balance programs for many employers including Marriott International and the White House during President George H.W. Bush\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

The partners sold their business in 2000 to Caliber Associates, a large consulting firm that worked with the federal government on social issues. Sher remained with Caliber (and subsequently ICF International when Caliber was sold) working on issues including corporate social responsibility. In 2009, she founded the Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation. A couple of years ago, she launched her \u201cDid Ya Notice? Project\u201d and is embarking on her new career. \u201cI\u2019ve never done one thing at a time,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But now she can focus fulltime on the \u201cnoticing\u201d that mindfulness entails; her new book, The Noticer\u2019s Guide to Living and Laughing\u2026Change Your Life Without Changing Your Routine<\/strong><\/em>, is available on Amazon; and her blog can be read at www.DidYaNotice.com<\/a>. \u201cI think that evolving is really the goal of life\u2014how do we evolve to become better in however we define better? More cognizant? More kind and thoughtful?\u201d she says. \u201cBeing able to keep evolving is really a great gift.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mindful evolution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54973,56332],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87541,87540],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","category-women-of-goucher"],"yoast_head":"\nMargery Leveen Sher \u201969 | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/margery-leveen-sher-69\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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