Shannon joined the Pacific Institute in 2021 as a Senior Researcher. Her work focuses on water and climate environmental justice for frontline communities. Her work is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, incorporating the social and natural sciences along with different ways of knowing to understand human-environment relationships and how people are impacted by and respond to environmental change. Her research has focused on climate change science and policy, water resources and drought preparedness, and climate planning and action, with a strong focus on supporting those at highest risk through just and equitable solutions.  

Shannon was a formerly a research scientist at the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center at Colorado State University where she led several projects coproducing science and decision support tools with and for agency and Tribal decision makers. Shannon was an author on the third and fourth U.S. National Climate Assessments, was a steering committee member for the third and fourth National Adaptation Forums, and currently serves on the steering committee for the upcoming fifth National Adaptation Forum.   

Shannon holds an M.A. in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a Ph.D. in Environmental Change and Sustainability Science (Ecological Anthropology, Ecology, Climatology) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in the interdisciplinary Resilience and Adaptation Program. At UAF she was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Fellow then an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.