Sharon has over twenty years of experience helping local organizations use data to improve their decision making. 

She is the executive director of The Polis Center at IUPUI, an applied research center in the IU School of Informatics and Computing with a mission to define, measure, and actively improve community health, wellbeing, and resiliency.  Sharon is responsible for developing and promoting the strategic direction of the center, directing a staff of 25 full-time employees, and growing the center's partnerships and expertise.  Prior to this, she was associate director and directed the center’s community informatics area, which designs solutions to meet the information technology and data needs of nonprofit and community-based organizations and applies spatial technologies to the analysis of local, state, and national issues. She directs the SAVI Community Information System, the NNIP partner in Indianapolis.

Kandris has consulted with over 20 cities across the nation on how to build a sustainable CIS and served on the executive committee of NNIP.  She earned a master’s degree in geography from University of North Carolina-Charlotte.