Shanna born and raised in Alaska. After high school, she moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she earned a degree in Art. After graduation, she moved back to Alaska and worked for two years as a laborer and heavy equipment operator for Peak Oilfield Services in Prudhoe Bay, where she soon began to feel called in a very different direction. Inspired as a child and adolescent by several outstanding teachers, she began to consider what it would look like if she could actively work to change the world. In this vein she enrolled at UAA, where she earned her BA in English, a Masters of Arts in Teaching (MaT) Secondary: English, and later a Certificate in K-12 Educational Leadership.

In 2003, her book club took up the task of creating a Waldorf

inspired charter school within the Anchorage School District,

approved in March of 2005. The following month, Shanna was

hired as the founding principal of Winterberry Charter School.

Shanna lives in Anchorage with her husband Troy and three sons, who attend Winterberry. She is the first one to say that Winterberry would not have been possible without their support and love.