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About Commissioner Reid

Shannon is a Lawrence townie, proud to have been raised here by a community who cared and offered support throughout her entire youth, which was steeped in experiences of family violence and deep personal trauma. Without the collective support of neighbors, friends’ families, robust social services, and many wonderful educators – Shannon is certain her life would look differently today. Thankfully, the Douglas County community planted early seeds of values she works to live by and lead with today – justice, safety, and mutual aid.

Shannon is a proud alum of New York and Broken Arrow Elementary Schools, Billy Mills Middle School (aka “South”) where she got to know Principal Blackbird and a more truthful history of Haskell Indian Nations University because of him, then she graduated in 2003 from Lawrence High School as president of her class and the Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper, The Budget. In her time as a KU student, Shannon served as a Resident Assistant at the old Hash Hall, a role that helped her realize natural empathy skills and capacity to lead with compassionate connection.  She later moved to Brooklyn after spending two life-changing summers working in upstate New York at Camp Fiver. As the “LEAD” Program Director for teen campers, she had the opportunity to support daily dialogue about equity, ethics, and social responsibility amongst a culturally diverse group of young leaders. Of course, she also loved to help teach all the classic camp activities as well - fishing, horseback riding, crafts, backpacking, and more. After that last summer at camp, Shannon left for the city more eager to explore the path of public service and was selected as an AmeriCorps VISTA Member to serve at Groundwork, Inc., a neighborhood support hub. Years later, Shannon was ready to come back home and re-joined AmeriCorps here to serve at the United Way of Douglas County’s Roger Hill Volunteer Center, to help coordinate opportunities for volunteerism with local nonprofits. Her proudest project was the development of a “Summer of Service” program where hundreds of adolescents signed up for weeklong projects at organizations across the county.

While promoting volunteerism in the community at large, Shannon trained to be an advocate at GaDuGi SafeCenter (now Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center), where she gained the tools to help empower fellow survivors of interpersonal violence. Through that volunteer work, she quickly realized a need to increase safe access to legal systems and processes for folks experiencing abuse. In 2013, Shannon was hired as the Court Advocate for The Willow Domestic Violence Center to help out survivors who have to navigate legal issues while trying to seek and sustain safety. This work offers direct knowledge of the systemic barriers that many vulnerable people in our community face when navigating hardship or crisis, be it at court or elsewhere. She continues to work as The Willow’s Director of Systems Advocacy.

Since Jan. 11, 2021, Shannon has had the privilege to serve her beloved home community as Douglas County Commissioner for the 2nd District. These initial years have included truly unprecedented challenges and responsibilities for the commission, and they have also come with opportunities to help bring forward meaningful change for the community at large. From issuing Public Health Orders during a global pandemic, supporting careful planning for the new Treatment & Recovery Center to deliver 24/7 crisis care, to funding for increased permanent supportive housing, establishing an Open Space Plan, to ushering forward the county’s largest capital improvements to date, and much more – Shannon has stayed busy alongside her fellow commissioners learning all she can about the widely varied issues that residents across Douglas County are concerned with.

Outside of work life, Shannon and her partner, Bobbi Henson, enjoy planting native prairie gardens, doing DIY home improvements, and venturing into wilderness for epic hikes whenever feasible. Bobbi is an Air Force Academy graduate and currently works as a Software Engineer in medical IT, spending their time on woodworking projects and trying new recipes otherwise. Together, Shannon and Bobbi work to live by shared values of critical thinking, hard work, and community care.