She ran her own NGO, Reckoning, for over 15 years where she designed, trained and led volunteers in how to lead students in after school programs teaching character and leadership using art-making and play. This work led her to work in South Africa, Nigeria, Russia, and The Netherlands. In addition to her NGO work, she has trained educators, entrepreneurs, small business owners, as well as corporate teams in Europe, Africa and the USA using the Dialogue Education methodology as a way to facilitate learnings in conflict resolution, strategic planning, cross-cultural dynamics, personal leadership and awareness, Human-Centered Design, and team-building.
Shawna wrote with two other colleagues, a training workbook called, “Creating a Playground for CLASS (character, leadership and social skills).” This was used in her NGO as they trained college and high school students to work with elementary aged children.
Currently, she is a teacher trainer, focusing on helping teachers use a more student-centred model, increasing engagement and agency for students, and releasing teachers as the content holder.
She loves to build connections between people and to connect people to nature, and ultimately for us all to live in a way that honors each other and the world we live in.