Sharon Paulette Courtney

Sharon Courtney, who dedicated her 38-year government relations career to strengthening higher education funding and policies in Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, died May 21 at age 61. She was a treasured wife, daughter, sister, aunt and friend and a faithful fan of Ole Miss and Saints football.

Sharon was a native of Aberdeen, Miss., and graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1987. She quickly began her career as a legislative assistant, first to U.S. Rep. Larkin Smith and then to U.S. Rep. John Murtha. In Rep. Murtha’s office, she spent 5 ½ years focusing on health care and education issues.

In September 1994, she brought that valuable experience to New Orleans to begin more than 30 years leading community and government relations for Tulane University. She was a key adviser to Tulane’s president and played a vital role with then-President Scott Cowen in reopening the university after Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters devastated the city and scattered students to other campuses. She was a champion for the rebuilding of Tulane and other universities in the city, leading efforts to secure $275 million in crucial funding for all the city’s public and private universities. For her efforts, she was named a YLC Role Model by the Young Leadership Council the spring after the disaster.

During her Tulane tenure, she also successfully managed community relations to secure the city’s approval for a new on-campus football stadium. Bringing football back to campus was an important milestone, which has energized the program.

Sharon led communications with stakeholders during the complex merger between Tulane and LCMC Health, which integrated medical training with community-based health care across the region. As Tulane’s representative on the BioDistrict New Orleans board, she was instrumental in kickstarting its growth and creating a new strategic plan for the 1,200-acre economic development district aimed at growing the biosciences sector.

In February 2025, Sharon struck out on her own, founding Neutral Ground Strategies. She didn’t step away from higher education work, though. She spent the past 15 months helping the University of New Orleans shore up its funding. A colleague at Washington Navigators, which she joined as a partner, described her as “the consummate advocate for higher education, combining tremendous expertise and passion with a network of connections built on mutual trust and respect.” She was still working for UNO during her last days, even while hospitalized. As Tres Bernhard, deputy chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, put it: She was “a damn effective advocate” who left it all on the field.

Her work wasn’t the only way she helped make New Orleans a better place to live. Sharon served as a member and president of the board for ReNEW Schools between January 2015 and May 2017. She brought strong leadership skills, a willingness to work hard and a commitment to the well-being of children to the board.

In 2018, she joined the board of the Data Center, which has provided objective data to help New Orleans leaders make smarter decisions since 1997. The center’s work became even more important post-Katrina when so much of the city had to be rebuilt, and Sharon was part of that effort.

In 2019, she joined the board for Market Umbrella, which operates farmers markets across New Orleans. She was currently board president. This work was particularly important to Sharon. She was an excellent cook and an avid gardener, and she was deeply committed to making sure residents would have access to fresh produce no matter their income level. After Sharon joined Market Umbrella, she tried to find farmers markets in any city she visited to see what they had to offer and encouraged friends to do the same.

Despite all her career and volunteer accomplishments, though, what made Sharon happiest was to have family and friends crowded around her dining room table for a feast prepared by her and her husband, Chris Allen. She hosted Friendsgiving dinners on Thanksgiving night for more than two decades, including in 2005 just three months after Katrina. She and Chris routinely served a delicious Easter lunch to 20 or more friends and family, and they got married at this year’s back-yard celebration.

Sharon was an organizer. Her friends dubbed her Julie McCoy, in honor of the fictional cruise director on The Love Boat. She had a detailed plan for anything she did – whether claiming the best spot to spread out a blanket for a concert at Wolf Trap when she lived in D.C. or planning a trip with friends to the Mississippi Delta, a birthday celebration in Paris or a bucket list concert at Red Rocks in Colorado.

She had a deep love for the city and its cultural traditions. She attended Jazz Fest every year she lived in New Orleans, often hosting a crawfish boil one weekend a year for a sprawling group of friends in town for the fest. She also was a major sports fan – from Ole Miss and the Saints to Formula 1. She and three friends bought season tickets to Saints games after Katrina and were rewarded with a string of playoff games and a Super Bowl trip to Miami (organized by Sharon). The Saints weren’t her only cultural touchstone. She and a group of friends also joined the Krewe of Muses when it was founded in 2000, and she rode in the parade for 11 years. More recently, she joined the Krewe of Dolly, which allowed her to buy a fabulous Dolly Parton wig and help the krewe’s mission of providing books to local children.

Sharon was a connector of people. If you were friends with her, you would eventually meet – and become friends with – all the people she loved from different moments in her life. From high school, to college, to D.C, to New Orleans and beyond, she wanted to bring as many of her friends and family together as possible. A friend said that her generosity was not merely hospitality, but a generosity of the spirit. That was a beautiful gift to the many people who love her and now have each other to lean on.

Sharon was preceded in death by her brother, Matt Morgan, and her grandparents, Raymond and Carolyn Stanford and Mary Jo (Jodie) (Gangy) Morgan.

She is survived by her husband, Chris Allen; her parents, Jim and Diane Morgan; her siblings, Mark Courtney and Courtney Gregory (Clay), and her nephews, Eli Harp, Fen Morgan, Jax and Clay Gregory.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, June 4, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 1329 Jackson Avenue, New Orleans.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Market Umbrella in New Orleans.