Award Winning
Purpose Ambassador
Sheryle GIllihan
Who I Am
I’m an idealistic realist. I hold onto hope for a better, brighter future, but realize that life is full of challenges and hard decisions. I accept that I can’t do it all, but I do my part to make a difference. After all, we shouldn’t let the realities of life get in the way of our dreams.
I have over 20 years of leadership experience and strive to help everyone use their gifts for the greater good. I speak often about using technology and business as forces for good. I facilitate events, panels, and workshops with nonprofits and social enterprises.
At CauseLabs, a custom web development agency using technology to create and scale impact, I help lead an awesomely talented team that builds tools for great causes. We believe that everyone deserves the life-changing benefits of technology and we strive our best to use our talents to create positive impact.
In my free time, I garden and tend to my chickens on our mini-farm, volunteer in my community, and do my best to be a supportive and loving daughter, mother, and wife. I love to travel, read, learn new languages and take pictures. I love tea, especially white tea, and I am an avid believer in meditation. I am altruistic, I believe in the good of all people, and I believe that I can be a whole woman everywhere that I show up.
See my digital resume (of sorts) on Linkedin to find out more about my past and present experience.
SPEAKER BIO
Sheryle Gillihan is committed to her values and purpose-driven work. She is Co-Owner and CEO of CauseLabs, Fort Worth's first certified B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation. Sheryle is a 2022 Great Women of Texas honoree, a 2017 Dallas Business Journal 40 under 40 honoree, a nonprofit board member, social enterprise advisor, and speaker on leadership and impact. She uses technology as a force for good to bridge cultural gaps and disrupt both local and global challenges to help organizations scale impact towards equality, education, and access.
Sheryle fuses her hope for a better, brighter future with over 20 years of leadership, operations, and technical management experience. Ranging from military to corporate to nonprofit sectors, her career path led her to CauseLabs in 2010, where she brought immense perspective, coordination, and a passion for using business and technology to grow positive impact.
A year in the military as an Arabic translator, seven years as a stay-at-home mother and four years in corporate America taught Sheryle to seek purpose and value meaningful work. In 2010, she joined CauseLabs, a web agency working with nonprofits and social enterprises to scale their missions and solve problems worth solving. It blended her experience with technology with her passion for giving back. Through her work, she discovered her own poverty story and leaned into her values to do her part to create a better future for everyone.
Sheryle has served on multiple advisory boards, lead the United Way of Tarrant County’s KERNEL social innovation program, and led a Girl Scout troop for 13 years.
Today, in addition to her role as CauseLabs CEO and co-owner, Sheryle serves on the Tarrant County College advisory board, the EO Fort Worth Board as chair for the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards (GSEA), leads Impact Fort Worth, is a mentor for several social enterprise programs, and serves a delegate at Opportunity Collaboration, a community of leaders focused on poverty alleviation.
Sheryle speaks at conferences around the world about purpose-driven, mission-focused business and leadership skills and she recently started a podcast empowering women called Woman-Owned Agency.
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
William James
AWARDS
Great Women of Texas - 2022
Social Impact Business Award - Global Winner 2020
RTI Helmsman Award for Leadership - May 2019
NTENny Award - 2018
BizWomen Headliners - Women in Technology - 2018
Dallas Business Journal 40 under 40 Honoree 2017
Leadership - CauseLabs 2014
Most Passionate Employee - CauseLabs 2011
Employee of the Year - awarded by Dan Bradbary, 2009
10,000 Volunteer Hours - awarded by General Dubik at Fort Lewis, 2006
Honorable Discharge - US Army 229th MI Battalion Bravo Company, 1999
Most Creative - awarded by SHS class of 1995
CAUSELABS AWARDS
Rotary Minority Business Awards (2023)
Real Leaders (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
Entrepreneur of Excellence Finalist (2022)
Top 100 Business Awards (2021) - Fort Worth Business Press
Best Place for Working Parents (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
Social Impact Business Award - Global Winner (2020)
Best Custom Software Development Company in Fort Worth (2020 - 2022)
Adoption Advocate (2020, 2021, 2022) - DTFA
#5 Small Business Adoption-Friendly Workplaces - DTFA
Project Awards: $martpath (2016, 2020)
Project Award: GovTech 100 for Balancing Act (2017 - 2022)
Best Places to Work North Texas (2019)
Top Workplace for Diversity from Comparably (2019)
Inclusive Economy Changemaker (2018, 2019)
Best for the World - Workers (2018, 2019)
Best for Colorado Finalist
Top Workplace for Women from Comparably
100 Best Places to Work from Outside Magazine (2015)
100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces - DTFA (2015 - 2019)
Parents' Choice Award for My Story Bookmaker for Kids
Three 40 under 40 awards amongst our team.
Nominations
Dallas Business Journal's Women in Technology - 2022
Rotary Minority Business Awards (2021, 2022)
Bold Women 2020