Home - Sharda Williams Madsen

Heads up: Name Change

Sharda Sekaran is now known as Sharda Williams Madsen.

Watch this space for more changes coming soon.

Stigmatizing Drug Use Is Killing Us,

But Why Is It So Hard to Stop?

Despite significant strides in drug policy in recent decades, and changing attitudes about some substances, stigmatization of people who use drugs remains a pervasive challenge—one that puts our health, wellbeing and lives at serious risk. Why is the temptation to judge and shame certain people who use drugs such a tough habit to break?

Read article

Reimagining criminalization, drug policy, and policing

Sharda writing for Filter Magazine, “How We Can All Take Responsibility to Avoid Calling the Police”

Read the article

What can COVID teach about harm reduction

I wonder if commitment to harm reduction could become even more widespread if more of us appreciated the broader application of harm reduction in our lives during the COVID pandemic. Read more in an article I wrote for Filter magazine, “Can the Pandemic Usher in a New Age of Harm Reduction Awareness?”

Expertise

Sharda Williams Madsen helps organizations create clarity and coherence across communications systems, leadership priorities, audience engagement, and narrative strategy so their work can mobilize people and resources more effectively.

Narrative Change

Fuel your communications to ignite enduring change

Strategic Communications

Experience to lead planning & build teams

Creative Content

Imaginative writing, multimedia production, campaigns & events

Work & Clients

About Sharda

For more than two decades, Sharda Williams Madsen (formerly known professionally as Sharda Sekaran) has helped leaders, organizations, funders, and changemakers clarify their voice, build engaged audiences, and communicate ideas with greater resonance and impact.

Read her full story

Sharda has worked with

“Sharda is simply amazing. I call her the client whisperer because she knows how to enter a high-pressure situation with seemingly impossible deadlines and create systems that both get the job done and calm everyone down. If Sharda says ‘I got it,’ you know that it’s taken care of. Sharda is also one of the best communicators and keenest listeners that I’ve met in 20+ years of journalism. She has a gift for taking in what people are saying, harvesting the most useful parts and combining them with the views of others, for a total package.”

Akiba Solomon, former Senior Editorial Director, Colorlines.com

"I had the enormous pleasure of working with Sharda in her role at DPA and then hiring her as consultant. Sharda's work is consistently thoughtful, thorough, and innovative. As a consultant, she showed enormous flexibility and sensitivity to the specific needs we had, modifying her approach and materials to suit our audience. She was prompt, often beating deadlines, and went above and beyond the scope of her contract. Sharda is a skilled and talented presenter, able to keep folks engaged and adapt to their needs on the fly. Her communications expertise and skills are unmatched."”

- Jules Netherland, Managing Director, Dept. of Research & Academic Engagement
Drug Policy Alliance

"Sharda is one of the most effective communications professionals I know. She has great judgment, is an excellent manager, and can keep track of a million details while focused on the big goals. She’s also an excellent writer and has consistently progressive politics. She’s fun and creative to work with, as well as conscientious. Highly recommend!"”

– Rinku Sen, Executive Director
Narrative Initiative

“Sharda Sekaran has keen instincts on the intersection of organizational development and communications strategy. She build narratives effortlessly but also knows how to create the infrastructure within an organization to move them. She is an inherently collaborative thinker and knows how to build off the strengths of any group of people. Sharda has the rare gift of helping an organization deliver a simple message effectively within a complex strategy and situating both perfectly in relation to one another. I recommend her without reservation.”
– Cathy Albisa, former Executive Director, Partners for Dignity and Rights

“Sharda is a master at supporting people to tell their story in ways that create maximum impact for social justice. As a communication strategist, she has an impressive portfolio of campaigns that have advanced the drug policy reform movement. Best of all she is an excellent collaborator and joy to work with.”
– Piper Anderson, Founder of Create Forward | Storyteller | Consultant | Facilitator