Sharman Stein, a longtime New York city government official and journalist, died May 5, 2018. She was 62. Stein was a communications pro in the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg after writing for newspapers in New York and around the country.
She was communications director for the city Administration for Children’s Services from 2004 to 2010 – where she helped guide City Hall through some of its highest-profile crises, including the murder of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown – and then became deputy commissioner of public information for the Department of Correction.
Stein went on to be communications director for SCO Family of Services, where she helped families hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy, and worked for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative.
“She believed she had an obligation and she used herself – and her craft – to tell stories that were life-changing,” said Gail Nayowith, then the executive director of SCO Family of Services. “She could handle anything. She juggled life-and-death situations. She juggled crisis after crisis with unbelievable composure.”
Stein was a reporter for newspapers around the country, including New York Newsday – where her reporting shed light on family homelessness – and the Chicago Tribune.
“She was a classic, out-of-an-old-movie reporter. She wanted to get the bad guy. I’ve known a lot of reporters, and I’ve never known anyone who loved reporting more than Sharman did,” said Mary Schmich, a coworker and friend.
Stein died from ovarian cancer.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, she lived in Riverdale in the Bronx with her husband Stuart Sherman, with whom she had two sons, Benjamin and Corey. She’s survived by her husband, sons, her mother Lillian, sister Leslie Adelstein, brother Sheldon and his wife Betsy Krebs.