Biography

In 2013, Shannon was appointed the sixth Executive Director for Wyoming Humanities, the state's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities and one of 56 independent state and territorial humanities councils. She is the chief executive officer of the 501c3 nonprofit and responsible for advocating for the humanities at the state and federal level. 

Previously, Shannon was Associate Director of Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development (TLPD) at EDUCAUSE. In this capacity, she designed and supported professional programs to advance IT leadership in higher education, with a specific focus on those who lead, manage, and use information resources to shape strategic decisions in colleges and universities. TLPD also includes the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), a community of higher education institutions and organizations committed to advancing learning through IT innovation. Prior to this role, Shannon was a Fellow in the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research where she was the Principal Investigator for the annual Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology.

Before joining EDUCAUSE, Shannon taught at Oglala Lakota College (www.olc.edu) for seven years in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. OLC is a tribal college located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, one of the largest and oldest tribal colleges in the nation. At OLC, Shannon taught survey courses in history, political science, and geography as well as courses in sovereignty, social justice, and globalization. She was chair of OLC's Faculty Development Committee for three years and chair of the Distance Learning committee for two years. As one of OLC's early adopters of distance learning technology, Shannon taught at least one online course every semester for seven years. She has an extensive online curriculum including innovative learning techniques designed specifically for the unique constituency of OLC's American Indian students.

Shannon has an M.A. in History from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and has published numerous articles and books, including her 2008 book on the mythology of Western History, "Give Me Eighty Men": Women and the Myth of the Fetterman Fight, which won the Wyoming Historical Society's Non-Fiction Book Award in 2009.

Prior to transitioning into her academic career, Ms. Smith spent eighteen years in software design, development, and marketing. She has extensive experience in data warehousing and data marts, business intelligence, document management, and digital content representation. As Director of Information Integration for Information Handling Services in Englewood, Colorado, Ms. Smith designed and implemented small and large document archiving and digital imaging systems for corporate, government, and educational archives throughout the United States. Follow Shannon on Twitter at @Smithstorian