About Sherry Jo:
It was in composing her 21-year-old daughter Siena’s obituary, mere hours after Siena’s death from an overdose in their family home, that Sherry Jo Matt first raised her voice to stop the judgment that surrounds mental illness and addiction. Since that devastating day, September 14, 2020, Sherry Jo has continued to use her voice to educate, advocate, and shine a light on the relentless battle that individuals and families of all ages and walks of life fight every day.
To magnify her voice, Sherry Jo founded Stop the Judgment Project (stopthejudgment.org) in Siena’s memory. Its mission is to educate the public about mental illness and substance abuse in order to end the stigma associated with these very complex diseases.
For Sherry Jo, compassion is paramount: “No parent ever thought, ‘My child’s going to grow up to have mental illness and a drug addiction.’ No kindergartener aims to be that person. But in today’s world, the reality is it’s happening more and more. And sweeping it under the rug or trying to explain it away only compounds the problems and the pain.”
Through openness, education, advocacy, and funding, Sherry Jo is determined to change long-held, detrimental attitudes and bring comfort, understanding, and assistance to those in need.
A successful businessperson, Sherry Jo is an accredited home staging professional, a licensed real estate agent, an adjunct professor, and the owner of Transcendent Staging & Renovation (transcendentstaging.com). Her work has been honored with several international staging awards.
