Job history: Shannon joined the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as a transportation planner in May 2016. She was promoted to a regional rail and transit coordinator for Northern California/Bay Area in 2019 and to her current title in June 2024.

Why she's influential as a leader: Shannon has assembled a team of Caltrans employees to advance rail investment, service and ridership across California. She helped lead the development of the most ambitious state rail plan that California has produced. With that vision, she is helping to steer Caltrans' road-centric organization into understanding the value of rail infrastructure in the state.

Shannon is not afraid to advocate on behalf of local rail agency partners in the during state and regional transportation investment processes. Whether applying on behalf of advancing local rail projects or insisting on higher performance standards from her local rail agency clients, she has created a new framework for the success of rail in the state.

She is customer focused, whether the customer is her staff, a local rail agency she represents in conversations within Caltrans, present and future riders of California's rail systems, the communities served by railroads or the state itself.