Shannon is a not so typical technologist. Her roots are grounded in public speaking and writing. She was a Communication Studies major and English minor in college, plus participated in competitive high school speech tournaments prior to collegiate life. She gravitated toward technology through music, by way of being a DJ and needing to record demos for club promoters. By taking the time to develop initial skills of troubleshooting, she quickly found herself in jobs that started to graduate her toward deeper levels of technical skill. A self-described tinkerer, Shannon worked with technical mentors and colleagues who have helped her develop proficiencies in infrastructure.

From her initial roots in help desk, to Windows systems administration, to VMware administration, to Exchange, to Exchange Online/Office 365, and finally Azure, she has carefully combined the right levels of technical prowess to propel her into her role at Microsoft.

Shannon is currently a Cloud Advocate on the Enterprise Tools and Platform team, which rolls up to the broader Methods and Practices team. She focuses on evangelizing enterprise platforms in Azure as a way to get IT pros comfortable with a life in the cloud.