Source: The Hill
Date: June 11, 2008
Author: Roxana Tiron
URL:
http://thehill.com/business--lobby/powerbroker-for-those-without-a-voice-2008-06-09.html
[Business & Lobbying]
Powerbroker for those without a voice
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Before he took calls from Bono and counted Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as
a friend, Tom Sheridan was a New York social worker getting his feet wet in
Washington with a tough decision to make.
A nascent AIDS advocacy organization in the late '80s asked Sheridan three
times to start the first AIDS lobby in the United States. Sheridan, who at
the time was not openly gay and feared the stigma associated with the job,
repeatedly said no. He turned to his grandmother, a devout Catholic, for
advice, expecting that she would reassure him of his decision.
He didn't count on Mother Teresa.
The famous humanitarian had recently opened an AIDS hospice in D.C., and
Sheridan's grandmother reminded him of this during their conversation. "If it
is good enough for Mother Teresa, why wouldn't it be good enough for you?"
she said at the time. Sheridan listened to his grandmother's wisdom and took
the job with the AIDS Action Council , representing a turning point in his
career as a master coalition builder for social causes.
"There is a great passion he has about doing the right thing," said Rep. Rosa
DeLauro (D-Conn.), who met Sheridan more than 20 years ago during Walter
Mondale's presidential campaign. "He wants to give a voice to people that do
not have a voice. He is indefatigable."
AIDS now is just part of Sheridan's portfolio. Sheridan opened his own firm
in 1991, after several years of what he calls the "best and worst job," at
the helm of the infamous AIDS lobby - a coalition of 140 organizations named
NORA, short for National Organization Responding to AIDS . Sheridan to this
day recalls the job as being "emotionally and physically draining." By 1990,
he was going to at least three funerals a week. He had come out, but felt he
needed a break.
At 30, Sheridan quit the AIDS lobby and spent a month in Africa, climbing
Mount Kilimanjaro, a lifelong dream. When he returned, Sheridan - who was
instrumental in passing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the
Ryan White CARE Act - decided that he would never again take on one single
issue.
The Sheridan Group now has a varied portfolio including: the American Cancer
Society; the Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome Association;
Oxfam; and Bono's Debt AIDS Trade Africa (DATA) organization, as well as the
ONE campaign to end global poverty.
Sheridan does not take naturally to stars. The first time Bono called him,
Sheridan thought he was talking with American rocker Jon Bon Jovi. He asked
the Irish legend why a singer from New Jersey would take such an interest in
Africa.
Unfazed by Sheridan's pop culture faux pas, Bono convinced him of his
dedication to the cause. Bono reached Sheridan through Bobby Shriver. Sen.
Edward Kennedy, Shriver's uncle, recommended Sheridan for the endeavor.
Kennedy had worked closely with Sheridan on the ADA legislation and other
health-related issues.
"A lot of celebrities use Washington to distract from other things,"
Sheridan, 47, said in an interview at his office far from K Street. He calls
the area NoMa (North of Massachusetts Avenue) -- his own "New York-ism" for
the still up-and-coming neighborhood by the Washington Convention Center.
"The issue is not getting served, but the celebrity is served by the issue,"
he added. "Bono was not looking to distract the public."
Bono, Sheridan said, comes to Washington several times a year without fanfare
and walks the Capitol hallways armed with facts and concrete results of
previous congressional funding or help. "You can't be an advocate for the
world's poorest people and not show a little humility," Sheridan said of
Bono, who more often than not travels to the Hill without a posse.
Sheridan is now working with singer Ricky Martin on another challenge: human
trafficking and slavery, an issue less talked about, and without an actual
advocacy organization behind it. The Ricky Martin Foundation launched a
campaign against human trafficking, but without Sheridan's experience the
effort may not easily attract political capital. "We are doing for them what
we did for the AIDS lobby: We are building a coalition," Sheridan said.
Those who know Sheridan say that coalition-building is his forte. "Tom is a
tremendous strategist," said Dan Smith with the American CancerSociety
Foundation. "Tom is a master coalition builder; he has a wonderful gift in
trying to find common interest in people."
Sheridan's rise to fame in the non-for-profit community could not have been
more coincidental. Sheridan started out as a social worker in New York with
responsibility over a group home for mentally disabled adults. He quickly
realized that not even zoning permits could be obtained without political
astuteness and decided to go to Washington, the heart of politics.
He started with the National Association of Social Workers in his early 20s,
where he was in charge of setting up a political action committee. He later
joined the Mondale campaign for two years, earning $15 a day. After Mondale's
defeat, Sheridan lobbied for the Child Welfare League . There, he learned
about "border babies": infants born to mothers with HIV who were dying, or
who themselves had HIV. The New York foster care did not know how to manage
these children at a time when everybody was "desperately afraid of the
virus."
Through Sheridan's lobbying, Congress passed legislation to create specialized
foster care programs and high incentives for foster parents willing to take
these children. It was considered the first piece of legislation ever to deal
with AIDS.
Sheridan downplays the significance - sticking with the strategy that got the
law passed. Sheridan underplayed the AIDS issue at the time to get lawmakers
to support it. Ultimately, he made the issue about hospitals and hospital
support, he said. That was enough for the fledgling AIDS community. The rest
is history.
"He brings a fighting spirit and a caring feeling to the people of the
movement he is representing, in a more personal and committed [way] than in
any other original lobbying or formal setting," said Kim McCleary with the
Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Association.
McCleary describes Sheridan as an underdog, representing issues that may not
have a chance of being heard. "It's like the David-and-Goliath struggle," she
said. And like David, Sheridan always wins.
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(c) 2008 The Hill
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