Walsh Business Club Hosts Author, Founder of Center for Citizen Initiatives

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The Walsh University Business Club will host a special presentation on the “Current Business Environment in Russia” by author Sharon Tennison, Founder and President of Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI), on Thursday, October 11, from 9:45 am to 11:15 am, in the Barrette Business and Community Center.  This event is free and open to the public. 

Tennison is touring Rotary District 6650 as a thank you for Rotary Club sponsorship of PEP Russian Delegations during the years 2000-08.  Rotary District 6650 clubs that sponsored delegations included Boardman, Canton (3), Dover, New Philadelphia, Jackson Township and Wooster.

The author of “The Power of Impossible Ideas,” Sharon Tennison was an ordinary American mom, haunted from childhood by inequities in her limited world. In addition to her success with CCI, Sharon quietly organized the integration of the first Dallas County public school in 1964.

In the early 1980’s, Tennison was a nurse and mother of four living in the San Francisco area at the height of the cold war, and like most Americans, she was fearful that the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. appeared to be careening toward nuclear confrontation. Alarmed by this, Sharon organized a group of mainstream American citizens who traveled to the U.S.S.R. in 1983 with the impossible mission to open doors between the peoples of the two Superpowers. The group of like-minded Californians received permission to travel into Moscow where they would roam the streets and find average Soviet citizens who would be open to dialogue and shared their thoughts about peace and life in general. There was plenty of intrigue involved in their first few visits and they devised a way to be sure they were not “covered” by the KGB or FBI agents.

That successful first trip led to the creation of the non-profit organization called the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI). From 1983 to 2008, CCI played a crucial role in fostering good will between the United States and Russia. Part of their legacy involves agricultural initiatives, establishment of the first Alcoholics Anonymous in Russia and the opening of service clubs.

Since the 1980's, CCI has grown from a coffee-table discussion to a 501(c)(3) organization with a multi-million dollar annual budget. Sharon has designed all CCI's programs and raised over $60 million to implement them. Prior to CCI, she was an ICU Registered Nurse and founded Dove Professional Apparel, a manufacturing company that produces medical wear.

Sharon was highlighted as one of nine persons in Citizen Diplomats: Pathfinders in Soviet American Relations in 1985. She produced When the People Lead video in 1984. In 1993, Tennison received a White House Appointment to sit on the 13-member Board for the Russian American Enterprise Fund. Sharon is known for creating and executing streamlined, low-budget, cost-shared technical assistance programs for the U.S. government.