About Sherri

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Sherri Zann Rosenthal is running for an At-Large City Council seat. With Durham’s creativity and grounded grittiness, Sherri believes we will have a vibrant, inclusive future if we protect Durham’s history and character amid development, demand that citizen participation be woven into our systems of government, and center solutions on Our Durham Values. 

Sherri retired in 2020 as Durham’s Deputy City Attorney after 25 years of service. Before that, she was a Legal Aid attorney specializing in representing low-income tenants, fighting for better housing and against evictions.

Sherri was active in the community reinvestment movement, successfully challenging big banks using the Community Reinvestment Act, and was a founding board member of the NC Fair Housing Center. 

In the 1990s, Sherri created Eno Commons, a 22-home green community that remains the most energy-efficient neighborhood in North Carolina. Because of her varied housing experience, Sherri was recruited to create the legal side of the City’s affordable housing program. 

After Sherri's father left the family when she was a teenager, her family was plunged into poverty. This was before the Uniform Child Support Enforcement Act was passed. Men could move across state lines and virtually no sheriff would enforce child support orders. Sherri attended Duke University through a combination of scholarships, loans, grants and working three jobs through most of school. It was her family's experience with DSS and other poverty support programs that motivated Sherri to pursue a job with legal aid when she graduated from law school.