Shannon has an extremely diverse background in sport, education, research and marketing as a former high-performance athlete herself. With a background in education as a secondary Physical Educator, she recently completed her M.A. in Olympic Studies at the German Sport University in Cologne. Her research was primarily focused on athletes transitioning from sport and the support provided by Canadian NSOs with a focus on Game Plan and other international athlete support programs. Her extensive travels also lead to various projects on international sport development for both adaptive and able-bodied athletes with a focus on health and physical education in varying communities. Upon completion, she was awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for her research and development within sport.

As a former softball athlete, she has won several provincial and national titles as well as awards with distinction from Softball Canada. Internationally, she competed and coached professionally in 6 international federations: Netherlands, Italy, Malta, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand. While competing, she was responsible for coaching amateur athletes and player development while collaborating with state/national level associations in creating successful performance pathways. Beyond the field of play, she managed to further pursue her career as a physical educator in various education systems around the world. Fortunately, as a duo-citizen to Malta, she managed to become a builder of sport through development strategies for local sport organizations within Malta and took part in the European Commission’s “Be Active” campaign to promote healthy active living across European communities. She is proud to be giving back to her sport by continuously working closely with developing junior elite athletes across Ontario through pitching clinics and player development camps.

Shannon’s Games experience started as a Sport Coordinator for the 2015 Toronto Pan/Para-Pan American Games. More recently, she attended the 2018 Paralympic Games in South Korea with a dual role in helping with the Canadian Paralympic Committee’s Canada House operations as well as a Sport Photographer/ Social Media Content Publisher for Mpower Sports and Recreation. Her role was to create more visibility through media by sharing the power of sport through the stories of the athletes, key leaders in sport and fans. This role provided her expertise in curriculum development by sharing the values within the Paralympic and Olympic Movement through education in the classrooms. As a researcher, she teamed up with Amped2Play and CADS Canada (Canadian Adaptive Snow Sports), to help carry out new initiatives by the Agitos Foundation, the development arm of the International Paralympic Committee, for their “Ski 4 All” campaign supported by their Grant Support Programme (GSP). This new sport for development initiative is geared towards improving awareness of inclusive sport and para sport development.

Her extensive background in sport stems from her athletic career and scholastic achievements from a multi-sport focus within the Ontario University of Athletics (OUA) and U Sports (formally the Canadian Interuniversity Sport) as well as the Ontario College Athletics Association (OCAA). She attended McMaster University for her undergraduate and was a member of the Softball, Squash and Track and Field teams. While completing her B.Ed at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT), she was a member of both Squash and Rowing teams and captured the university’s first OUA gold medal with her crew. Her distinguished achievements within the OUA allowed her to be awarded as the “Woman of Influence.” To finish her scholastic playing career, she completed her diploma in Sport Business Management at Durham College with her softball team winning the OCAA Championship.

With the role of Game Plan Specialist, Shannon is proud to be supporting a world-class program that aims to help athletes find their passions beyond the field of play as well-rounded individuals while maintaining a healthy balance in their high-performance career. Ultimately, she wants to advocate for strengthened partnerships and support from our National Sport Federations, improved development strategies within the LTAD and Canada's education and coaching networks to assure that athletes’ voices are heard.