Team & Board

Shila Williams Ulrich, MSW serves as the executive director for The Caring Cupboard, a choice food pantry aiding the Palmyra, Annville, and Cleona areas. Recently, Shila led the effort to assume JOY food pantry in Jonestown.

Shila is passionate about building strong communities through collaboration and has worked in many capacities to realize this vision. She currently serves as chair of the board of Palmyra Interfaith Manor and Lebanon County Housing Authority. Additionally, she served on the Better Together Lebanon County steering committee and is on the Healthy Food Access Committee where she previously co-chaired. Along with several other community members, Shila founded Palmyra’s Great Give which has raised more than $150,000 for more than 50 community organizations in just 4 years.

Shila was inducted into the Lebanon County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2018 in the category of Women Demonstrating Leadership. Under Shila’s leadership, The Caring Cupboard was named Partner of the Year Runner Up in 2018 by the Central Pa Food Bank, an organization that has more than 1,100 partner agencies. She was honored to receive an Alumni Citation from Lebanon Valley College, in 2022, her alma mater, for her work in the community.

Before employment at The Caring Cupboard, Shila served as a volunteer for the organization for 9 years in various capacities. Shila spent the first decade of her career working in community mental health settings, including outpatient and inpatient. The vast array of experiences Shila has had has informed her ability to understand all the roles that she plays as a nonprofit leader. Shila completed a bachelors of Psychology from Lebanon Valley College, has a Master’s of Social Work from Temple University, and a Certificate of Non Profit Leadership from Duke University.

She hails from Altoona but once she came to the Lebanon Valley in the early aughts, she never left. She married her college sweetheart, Derek, and along with her two sons, Noah and Lucas, lives in Palmyra.