Shannon Reid

Except for a four year adventure in Brooklyn, NYC, Shannon is a lifelong Lawrencian / Kansan. She was raised by a community who cared and offered support throughout her youth, which was steeped in family violence and deep personal trauma from a young age. Without the community support offered to her by her neighbors, friends’ families, robust social services, and many wonderful teachers — Shannon is certain her life would look differently today. Luckily, the Douglas County Community planted early seeds of values that Shannon now works to live by: mutual aid, justice, safety, and change. Shannon is a proud student of USD 497 schools, she grew up primarily in East and SE Lawrence, graduating from Lawrence High School in 2003 as her Senior Class President and Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper, The Budget. Service, leadership, and truth telling have long been core values for Shannon. During her time as a student at University of Kansas, Shannon served as a Resident Assistant at Hashinger Hall, aka: “HASH” Working at KU Student Housing helped Shannon lean into natural empathy skills and an ability to lead by way of compassionate connection. Being an RA laid an early foundation for Shannon’s career in direct service/advocacy; the community she experienced on campus left a much larger imprint than any classroom lesson of those few years. It was during that time also that Shannon realized her queer identity and found new community in new places, primarily via her involvement with Queers & Allies on campus where she held elected officer roles and learned to organize.

Shannon moved to Brooklyn in 2006 after spending two life-changing summers working in upstate New York at Camp Fiver, the flagship program of Fiver Children’s Foundation in NYC, and falling in love with a community she wanted to experience year round for a while. She had the opportunity to learn what active community building and empowerment could look like for young people living with injustice. As the Program Director for the LEAD teens, she was able to build upon the program’s leadership goals by facilitating daily dialogue about equity, privilege, and social responsibility – which included participation in a local grassroots campaign of rural residents fighting eminent domain for a large-scale multi-county transmission line project. Of course it was camp, so she also loved to teach all the classic activities too – like fishing, horseback riding, arts & crafts, canoeing, plus wilderness/backpacking skills! After that last summer at camp, Shannon left for the city even more eager to explore the path of public service, and was selected to be an AmeriCorps VISTA Member at Groundwork, Inc. with the charge of building a comprehensive 1-stop shop local resource guide for the neighborhood residents. Years later, she headed back home and re-joined AmeriCorps by serving at United Way of Douglas County, coordinating opportunities for volunteerism with local non-profits. Her proudest project was the development of a “Summer of Service” program where hundreds of youth signed up for week-long projects at varied organizations across Douglas County. While promoting volunteerism in the community at large, Shannon also trained to become a volunteer advocate at GaDuGi SafeCenter (now the Sexual Trauma & Abuse Care Center) between 2010-2014, where she gained the tools to support and empower survivors of interpersonal violence. She quickly realized the need to increase safe access to and navigation of the local legal systems for people in the community who suffer abuse & exploitation. In Feb. 2013, Shannon became the Court Advocacy Director at The Willow Domestic Violence Center in an effort to empower more survivors engaged with systems while trying to establish and maintain their safety — and a career stuck! She proudly continues to work at The Willow today, now with a focus on systems change and policy advocacy within the criminal legal system.

Since January 11, 2021, Shannon has had the privilege to serve as Douglas County Commissioner for the 2nd District. The first 3+ years have included truly unprecedented challenges and responsibilities, and have also brought meaningful progressive change to our community. From issuing Public Health Orders during a pandemic, helping establish local Public Defenders’ Offices, insisting on a careful review process and plan for opening the Treatment & Recovery Center to deliver 24/7 crisis services, studying with county staff and residents alike what the local regulations should look like for large-scale renewable energy projects, to partnering with local advocates + agencies to work toward sustained solutions for the national homelessness and housing crisis that is deeply affecting our local community. Shannon has stayed busy learning all that she can about the issues facing residents across all of Douglas County. It has been the honor of her life and she hopes to serve another 4yrs. if voters make it so. Shannon and her partner, Bobbi Henson, stay committed to actively engaging in service to and care for the community they call home. On a personal note, they also love spending time trying out new recipes together, doing DIY home improvements, building pollinator gardens, and adventuring near and far whenever an opportunity presents – be it hiking, geocaching, public art, or finding new good food! Bobbi, an Air Force Academy graduate, currently works as a Software Engineer in medical IT. Together, Shannon and Bobbi work to live by shared values of critical thinking, equity, problem solving, and care.