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.
Her clients and collaborators have included philanthropists, founders, advocacy networks, NGOs, public health organizations, and community leaders. Drawing on her background in advocacy, narrative strategy, organizational communications, storytelling, and audience engagement, Sharda brings a rare combination of emotional intelligence, systems thinking, analytical rigor, and creative insight to complex communications challenges.
Much of her work focuses on helping organizations and leaders communicate effectively during periods of transition, uncertainty, growth, or strategic change. Her approach combines strategic rigor with narrative intelligence, creative insight, and a deep understanding of how people connect to meaning, identity, culture, and change.
Sharda is also a aspiring novelist, essayist, and creator. Her fiction and creative work explore mortality, identity, consciousness, culture, and the stories we tell ourselves about what it means to be human.
Her writing has appeared in Ebony, Colorlines, HuffPost, Filter, Mass Appeal, ATTN:, Al Jazeera, Nonprofit Quarterly, CNN.com, and Brown Girl Magazine. She has developed her fiction and narrative craft through workshops, fellowships, and residencies with VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts, Tin House, Community of Writers, Kimbilio, Black Women Writers in Europe, and the Blue Mountain Center.
Originally from New York City and now based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sharda holds both a BA in International Relations from Pomona College and an MBA from Emory University.
Known for her warmth, creativity, collaborative spirit, and ability to synthesize complexity into clear strategic direction, Sharda helps organizations and leaders communicate in ways that feel strategic, resonant, and alive.