Dr. Sonya Sharififard serves on the Board of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and is a faculty member in the graduate Social Entrepreneurship and Change program at Pepperdine University. Her current research explores leadership development and global food systems, a project she completed as part of the AMPLIFY fellowship program with the Pacific Council. Previously, Dr. Sharififard served as a postdoctoral research fellow and Managing Editor of The Scholarship without Borders Journal at Pepperdine University and Lecturer at California State University, Sacramento.

In 2024, Dr. Sharififard published her first book with Palgrave Macmillan, Community, Food Insecurity, and a Global Perspective on Campus Food Pantries, which examines the role of campus food pantries around the world and their impact on student development and environmental issues.

She has also co-authored book chapters in New Horizons in Positive Leadership and Change (Springer 2020) and Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment (Palgrave 2018). Dr. Sharififard has presented at major international conferences and serves on the review panel of global institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Academy of Management (AOM), and the International Leadership Association (ILA). She was invited by the US Office of the Surgeon General to serve as a Reviewer for the prestigious journal, Public Health Reports. 

Since 2025, Dr. Sharififard co-hosts the From Curiosity to Clarity podcast at https://infoguides.pepperdine.edu/C2CGSEP. 

Dr. Sharififard holds a PhD in Global Leadership from Pepperdine University and is fluent in Farsi.