Children’s Beach House trustees elect new president

The Children’s Beach House board of trustees recently elected Tom Sheridan to serve as board president for three years.

Sheridan joined the board in 2017 and has served as vice president since 2021. His recent appointment is reflective of the organization’s confidence in his leadership, as well as the board’s evolving vision of CBH’s work and growth over the next few years.

In 2020, when COVID forced a stoppage in CBH programs and services, trustees used the pause to develop a new strategic plan that reimagined how Children’s Beach House impacts the community. The goal was to think of CBH less as a building, vaguely associated with the du Ponts, where children went to summer camp, and more as a dynamic partner that showed up alongside families and communities across the state, working with them in integrated ways to transform lives and futures.

That plan, now three years in execution, has led to exciting new opportunities. These include CBH’s new social enterprise catering company, Greater Good Events, as well as expanding partnerships with schools in Milton and establishing allies in the General Assembly who see Children’s Beach House as an innovative, agile service organization whose impact stems from its all-in commitment to those it serves. But it also comes with new challenges, including listening to and learning from the communities CBH aims to serve, and finding new resources to support the long-term transformative work.

Sheridan is no stranger to disrupting business-as-usual models. He began his career in New York as a social worker, opening group homes for individuals with developmental disabilities at a time when the state was shuttering large institutions and moving individuals to neighborhood-based homes. Later, as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., he was instrumental in the enactment of the Ryan White CARE Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1991, he founded the Sheridan Group, a lobbying firm with a mission to put public interest causes and the common good at the center of public policy. 

Regarding the changes in store for Children’s Beach House, Sheridan is undaunted. “This is the most forward-leaning and risk-affirmative the board of trustees has ever been. The organization is not stuck in past practices. Rather, we stand on the firm foundation of our past with the privilege to embrace the future. The ethos here is ‘We’re going to stretch, and we may fail at some things.’ I don’t think you’re trying hard enough unless you’re failing, and when you do, you reward that failing with learning. The byproduct of innovation is failure, and the gift of failure is adjustment and improvement. I’m excited to see Children’s Beach House become the preeminent statewide organization serving communities, families and children with special needs,” said Sheridan.

Children’s Beach House is based in Lewes and works across Delaware to build a world where all children thrive. For more information, go to cbhinc.org.