Shannon works closely with HELP’s leadership team to advance HELP’s mission to create and apply knowledge through interdisciplinary research to help children thrive. She prioritizes connection and relationships, including with partners outside of UBC, internal HELP and UBC staff, trainees, faculty and the fabulous Aboriginal Steering Committee at HELP. She ensures that HELP has the people, the plan and the funding to get good work done. She has a BA in Child and Youth Care from the University of Victoria and spent 10 years as a youth worker in Delta. During that time, she learned the value of using research evidence in practice and subsequently pursued a career in research. She became the Research Manager for the BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, a research unit affiliated with UBC’s Department of Pediatrics, for a further 10 years. Through that position, she had the opportunity to coordinate the CIHR Team in Child and Youth Injury Prevention, manage multiple projects and learn the operations and administrative side of research management. She also spent a year as the senior program manager for the Community Against Preventable Injuries, a social marketing organization, and several years as the coordinator of ThinkFirst BC, an organization focused on brain and spinal cord injury prevention among children and youth.