Shannon O’Brien Brooks (formerly Wilder) has served as the founding director of the Office of Service-Learning (OSL) at the University of Georgia since 2005 where she provides leadership, support, and vision for enhancing UGA’s service-learning initiatives and its community-campus engagement.
Shannon serves as the editor for the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement (JHEOE). Her research has been published in journals such as the International Journal of Education and the Arts and the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. In addition to her administrative duties, Shannon holds a courtesy faculty appointment in the Department of Art Education in the Lamar Dodd School of Art where she has developed and taught the graduate course Art Education in the Community as well as a First Year Odyssey service-learning course, ‘Citizen Artists’ and the Role of the Arts in Public Life. In addition, she has co-taught GRSC 78070S: Service-Learning Course Design.
Shannon was selected as a 2008-2009 Education Policy Fellow by the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. She also served as the 2009-2010 chair of the executive committee of the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement through Higher Education and was the recipient of this organization’s 2011 Outstanding Service-Learning Practitioner Award. She has served on many university-wide committees such as the National Survey of Student Engagement Steering Committee, the Quality Enhancement Plan Committee for UGA’s 2010 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation process, and co-chaired the working group for UGA’s application for the 2010 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification.
She received her BFA from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She holds a M.Ed. in instructional technology (2001) and a Ph.D. in art education (2006), both from the University of Georgia. Prior to leading the OSL, Shannon worked in UGA’s Office of Instructional Support & Development (now the Center for Teaching and Learning) from 2000-2005, and in Cooperative Extension from 1995-2000.
An active community member, she has served as chair of the board of the Athens Community Council on Aging, chair of the board of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce, chair of the SPLOST 2020 Citizens Advisory Committee, and past president of the Classic City Rotary Club, and board member for the Athens Area Homeless Shelter. In 2011, she was selected as one of the Athens Banner-Herald’s 40 Under 40 community leaders. She previously served on the board of the Clarke County Mentor Program, the 2008-09 School Council for Classic City High School, and is a 2012 graduate of LEAD Athens.
Office: 008 Office of Service-learning
Phone: 706-542-0535
Email: [email protected]
