Sharon Maxwell was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She has spent most of time in the Northwest.

Sharon successfully completed her journeyperson carpentry certification in 1993 at the Portland

Community College Skill Center for Construction Trades Program where she went on to get her

sprinklerfitting apprenticeship. In 1999 Sharon had a dream and vision to start her own construction

company, Hendricks Loyal Construction which was a residential construction firm.

Once she recognized the opportunities on the commercial side of construction she changed her

business model to one of commercial and public works. As Sharon raised her family she built her

construction company. She completed her Associates Degree in Business and Political Science major in

2004 at Portland Community College. She grew her construction business to be one of the longest

tenure minority leading general contracting firms in the Northwest. She is among few women and

counting on one hand of African American women who has broken the glass ceiling in the construction

industry being in her 15 year or operations.

In 2013 she took a sabbatical to complete her bachelors degree in Business Administration from Warner

Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, which is a great achievement. She also is the founder of House of

Shalom a non-profit transitional, emergency housing program that outreaches to single parents with

children, post incarcerated persons, and home/houseless disabled persons. She is also the founder of

Y2ABC- Youth and Young Adults Being Connected a Summer Youth Employment and Career Exploration

program. She is committed to building Community through her business and non-profits organizations.

“Boanerges/Bratton Construction builds community by building people who build neighborhoods that

build cities” Strong people build strong communities”

She ran a successful campaign for city council in Portland in 2013 for a seat on Portland city council

securing 20% of the vote as a first time candidate.

She is multifaceted in her background she has intersected many arenas to develop her professional

career.

She is working the last 30 years to change the structural racism the narrative that has been perpetuated

through a institutional systems that have be created to manage the outcomes with no real impact but to

continue patterns of dysfunction. She believes that it takes the people to “Be About it” the changes

they want along with the education to have the knowledge to rewrite their own narratives.