If you ask Judy Sharpe-Kosmatka what she is most proud of in her life, she will tell you that she doesn’t really like the word “pride” because it seems to indicate that she did something all by herself….and she will tell you that’s just not true. This seems to be a very common sentiment within all Outstanding Women. Judy can tell you that she gets the most joy from her family. She loves seeing their hearts, their caring ways, and their goofy senses of humor.
Judy is retired from JPMorgan Chase and when she is not busy volunteering she loves spending time with her husband, Dale and their five children. Judy is currently the Missions Coordinator at Harlem Road United Methodist Church. Through this position, she has been able to lead mission trips to Honduras, Appalachia, New Orleans, West Virginia, a Minnesota Indian reservation, and to Haiti. Judy has organized four churches and two community organizations to provide support to a local mobile home park. Through this support they’ve set-up an after school program, weekly worship and meals, a community garden, a job creation program, and have provided Thanksgiving meals and Christmas gift sponsorships.
Along with the work that Judy has done with her church, she also volunteers with the Red Cross Disaster Services team. She’s done disaster assessment after Hurricane Ike, managed a Red Cross shelter for Katrina victims, and most recently was in New York City and Long Island after Hurricane Sandy.
You would think that with everything Judy is involved with, it must be hard to balance all things in her life but she says that she has a high energy level and a very loving husband who encourages her in anything that she does. Most importantly, she is energized by others. She is inspired most by anyone who shows love to another…especially Jesus. Judy used a quote in her high school yearbook that is still her favorite: “Love isn’t love until you give it away.”
Judy also has a great support system in her church and they give her guidance for many of her activities. She says “it seems to me that the best things are accomplished when we really appreciate other people and understand that they have opinions, likes/dislikes, and feelings that are just as important as ours. Whatever we do involves others and the best outcomes, whether personal or business, happen only when we’ve considered everyone’s feeling and viewpoints.”
The one change that Judy would like to make in the world is for people to really love and respect each other. She would love for people to do more than “treat others as you’d like to be treated” and move to “treat others as they’d like to be treated.” Judy’s only goal is to “keep following the leads I get from God on where and how to help others. How can anything be more exciting than to be working with the most loving and most knowledgeable leader that ever existed?!”