Jerry Sherk is the president of Mentor Management Systems of Encinitas, an organization that has assisted youth mentoring programs for the past 20 years. As a mentoring consultant, Jerry has worked with hundreds of mentoring organizations to develop their operational systems and to train staff, mentors and mentees. As the co-founder and first chairman of the Mentoring Coalition of San Diego County, Jerry is currently on the leadership committee for the California Mentoring Partnership (CMP). The CMP works with the National Mentoring Resource Center to provide technical assistance to youth mentoring organizations in California, as well as, other states across the US—and that is how Jerry comes to the COOL Mentoring Program. Jerry has a master’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in counseling. A former all-pro defensive tackle who had a 12-year career with the Cleveland Browns, Jerry attributes his motivation for working in youth mentoring to the many coaches and mentors that guided him along the way.