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My mission is to boost our Collective Intelligence so that we solve humanity’s most pressing challenges together.
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Meet Shannon
- Sociologist
- Civic Entrepreneur
- Movement Builder
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As an applied sociologist, I think of myself as a doctor for society.
My job is to understand how our communities and institutions function — how they grow, struggle, and change.
And when things fall out of balance, I look for root causes, promising solutions, and pathways for action.
But real change doesn’t come from quick fixes.
It comes from bringing leaders, thinkers, and doers together to create solutions that last.
Because when we activate our collective intelligence - our capacity to solve problems well, even in complex conditions - there's nothing we can't build together.
Today, I build collective intelligence in two ways:
- Founder of Civic Wisdom: A public sector agency that helps state, county, and city goverments perform at their best.
- Senior Fellow at U.C. Berkeley: I teach in the Agile Government Initiative at the U.C. Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy.
Most recently, I served as the Senior Advisor to the Chief Data Scientist at the White House and the Chief Data Officer in the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Prior to my public sector work, I founded Epic Teams, a leading consultancy in the field of agile organizational performance for tech startups and Fortune 500 companies.
A native of California, I now live and work in Washington, D.C. And yes, I miss the tacos every day.
“Shannon is a bridge builder and silo buster. Together, we co-founded a network that aligned federal, state, and local government tech and data leaders around shared needs and solutions. In that work, Shannon’s leadership was invaluable. She sees opportunities to connect people, organizations, and policies that most people just don’t see.”
Denice Ross
Deputy Chief Technology Officer
White House
“Shannon has an unparalleled mind for organizational strategy. She understands what it takes to help bureaucracies innovate. She led the Department of Commerce through the development of a four-year data strategy that resulted in an inspiring collective vision for the future and a roadmap to get it done.”
Oliver Wise
Chief Data Officer
U.S. Department of Commerce
“Working with Shannon is an inspiring experience like no other. She possesses that rare combination of bold vision and execution. I had the pleasure of witnessing this firsthand while working closely with her on a breakthrough initiative to educate influencers and Gen Z voters on policies that matter most to them. She knows exactly how to catalyze and mobilize leaders for change.”
David Angelo
Chairman and Founder
David&Goliath
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Speaking
Keynote Topic: Why We Need An Open Source Government to Debug Our Future
Government is like the operating system of society—it’s how we build the frameworks that keep everything running.
Without it, the whole system crashes.
It’s the backbone of our infrastructure, the invisible code behind clean water, safe food, and reliable power grids. It’s how we patch vulnerabilities—whether it’s public health threats, environmental risks, or financial instability. And just like in tech, no single genius or startup solves the biggest problems alone. The internet wasn’t built by lone hackers in garages—it took collective effort, public investment, and long-term thinking.
The biggest innovations happen when we collaborate, iterate, and scale solutions for everyone. So let’s stop acting like the government is some bloated legacy system and start treating it like what it really is—an open-source project we all contribute to, because when it works, we all win.
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We train leaders to unlock the Collective Intelligence of their teams with behavior change hacks that spur collaboration, creativity, and lasting change.
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We convene the next generation of civic leaders to imagine, build, and scale the next generation of great ideas for the good of our country.
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U.C. Berkeley
Goldman Policy School
Teaching agile government policy-making to the next generation of civic leaders.
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The guiding principles of my work.