Who We Are

Meet our leadership, board of directors, and advisory council.

Founder / Executive Director

Sharon Wolfman Cohan, M.A.C, is a native Texan and proud Longhorn. She holds an undergraduate degree from University of Texas at Austin, Plan II Honors program and also a Masters in Counseling from St Edward’s University. In addition to training as a therapist, she has worked in Human Resources for PricewaterhouseCoopers and also in the non-profit sector. For the past 20 years, she has been focused on work as a community volunteer and “working at home” with her husband, three children Alex, Katie and Emily and two canine fur babies. Sharon has served as a volunteer on various board and committees within AISD schools, Temple Beth Shalom and Shalom Austin. Her current passion is the vaccine equity effort and she looks forward to expanding capabilities to reach more people and continue to break down barriers to vaccine access.

Board President

Alex Bass, P.E, grew up in Houston, earned a B.S. in Engineering from Trinity University in 2008 and became a Professional Engineer (P.E.) in 2014. She has worked in project management for 13 years, including an expat assignment in Malaysia which fueled her passion for connecting with people of different cultures and striving for global good. Alex moved to Austin in 2014 and lives with her husband, Davis, and an active toddler, Harris. In early 2021, Alex began volunteering remotely, at all hours of the day, in the grassroots vaccine effort to connect Texans to vaccine appointments. Toward the middle of the year, as vaccines became more accessible, the group was able to take a breath, look around, and start talking about hopes and dreams to address other inequities in the Austin community.  

Board Member

Choni Hajibashi focuses on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for TogetherAustin, and leads Spanish translation for VaxTogetherAustin. She was born in Spain and raised in Australia. Choni studied at the University of Wollongong and has been living in Austin for over 20 years. She is an active community volunteer and proud mother of two. Her son Darius is studying at Colorado School of Mines and her daughter Soraya is currently a junior in high school. Choni is a strong child advocate and believes in empowering others to advocate for children and their families. She has been involved with PTA at the local levels, council and state level and was the ACPTAs president 3 years ago. She has served on the board of Texas PTA as a Director at Large.

Board Treasurer

Jayne Rosso, C.P.A.

Board Member

Raji Parameswaran, M.B.A, has been building communities for over 3 decades, from before the Internet! She does consulting for non-profit organizations, most recently she was COO of Best for Babes, a breastfeeding advocacy and support organization. She has degrees in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from UT-Austin.  A Canadian at heart, she has been in Texas 25 years, and has 17 year old twins. Her latest passion has been in getting seniors vaccinated in the confusing and chaotic vaccine rollout. Her vast networks in the Asian and Indian communities enabled her to reach thousands of people via her vaccine WhatsApp groups. Now her focus has broadened to outreach to make sure everyone has access to appointments and is able to get them without technological or other obstacles.

Board Member

Kanaka Sathasivan, M.P.H., joined the board of TogetherAustin in 2021 to further vaccine education initiatives and increase health equity in the Central Texas area where she grew up. She has a background in strategic planning, writing, graphic design, and health education. She is an advocate for person-centered communications and trains health care professionals on best practices for writing about health topics. Kanaka sits on the Board of Directors for Its Time Texas and also owns a stage production company, Natya Sabhai Arts. She enjoys being cozy at home, watching movies, playing video games, and reading.