Shannon m. parker

DEVELOPMENT STEWARD

shannon@heartyroots.org

Shannon M. Parker is a former member of the Hearty Roots Board of Directors and a lifelong educator and adventurer. She’s traveled to 38 countries and 5 continents. She’s hiked to the top of the Andes and the bottom of The Grand Canyon and is always grateful to return home to Maine. Shannon currently serves as the development steward, writing grants for programming and program expansion. Previously, she served on the Hearty Roots executive team working in strategy and operations, involved in marketing and communications; increasing press and public awareness of the organization’s mission and efficacy; donor engagement; creating internal policies and procedures; increasing financial sustainability, and heading the organization’s capital campaign.  

Prior to her work with Hearty Roots, Shannon secured over three million dollars in grants to serve Maine’s most vulnerable populations by providing youth with guided early literacy, deepened academic programming, increased access to arts & culture, enriched and safe after-school programming, supportive health and wellness, and more. In addition, Shannon also secured funding and designed programs to help first-generation college students access post-secondary education, provided alternative pathways to high school graduation, improved adult and early literacy and assisted young mothers and their families. For her work, she was awarded distinction in educational administration by the State of Maine Department of Education.

When she’s not working to deepen the impact of Hearty Roots, Shannon is a literature professor in Maine and holds degrees in English Literature, Linguistics, and Educational Leadership from Saint Michael’s College, University of Massachusetts at Boston and the University of Southern Maine, respectively. She is committed to lifelong learning and currently attends a graduate degree program at Harvard University. Shannon has published two critically-acclaimed novels with Simon & Schuster, as well as several short stories. When she’s not reading or writing or wrangling kids, she can be spotted on the water. In a blue kayak. The one that matches her truck.