Sharon Friedman is the founder and Managing Editor of The Smokey Wire, a community sourced and supported news site for forest and federal lands issues. The Smokey Wire focuses on shared learning and civil discussion among practitioners (wildfire, forest, grassland, wildlife, fish, legal professionals), researchers, academics and the public.

From 1979 to 2012, she worked at the US Forest Service in NEPA, FOIA, Appeals and Litigation, Planning, Climate Change, and Research and Development; including an assignment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on the regulation of genetically engineered organisms in the environment. Friedman is a Fellow of the Society for American Foresters and a former Chair of their Forest Policy Committee. She has two degrees in forestry and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of New Hampshire.