Sharon
Chatman

BIO:

Sharon Chatman was a basketball coach at San Jose State, as well as a lawyer and a judge. She was born in Bakersfield on December 15th, 1947, and went on to attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where she played point guard on the women’s basketball team.  Her love of basketball led to two decades of coaching the sport. Chatman first began coaching basketball at Andrew P. Hill High School in San Jose, and then at De Anza College in Cupertino. In 1976 she became the head women’s basketball coach at San Jose State, where she coached until 1986. She is the only coach in the history of the Spartan’s basketball team to compile a winning record, her overall win-loss record was 143-121. Because of this, she was inducted to the SJSU Sports Hall of Fame in 2004.  

Chatman chose to retire from basketball and pursue a second career, where she also made important contributions. She graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law in 1989 and was admitted to the California State Bar that December. In 2000, she was appointed to Superior Court judge by Governor Gray Davis. During her eleven years as a judge, she did not simply stick to the status quo, but rather sought to make meaningful change. She supervised the Superior Court’s three dedicated domestic violence courts, where she helped to make many changes, including a special court calendar for domestic violence offenders who struggled with mental health, and a special project for defenders with children. In 2005, she founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Building Peaceful Families, which seeks to help individuals become more responsible family and community members through a variety of programs. Her contributions impacted the lives of many people. Her goddaughter Peterson remembers her fondly as her “4’8 giant. Because her heart was just huge.” 

Womanhood is a public art and digital media project that promotes the historical contributions of women to Santa Clara County. https://womanhoodproject.org/ 

Womanhood is supported by the County of Santa Clara Office of Women’s Policy.