Shannon Mitchell Boekstal
Shannon has spent her professional life improving opportunities for children and their families. With a degree in elementary/special education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, she has more than 20 years experience in early childhood education as an educator and as childcare director. During these years, Shannon initiated many family engagement opportunities and taught classes on communication with sign language for parents and their children.
Seeing the impact of poverty, trauma, and domestic violence can have on young children she decided to go back to school and complement her education with a bachelor's degree in social work at Nebraska Wesleyan University. As a practicum student, Shannon worked for the Sixpence Early Learning Fund and loves the positive impact Nebraska Children and Families Foundation and their community partners has on families in Nebraska As a service coordinator at Early Development Network, she had first hand experience in working with young children and families to access quality education and community resources. As a social worker in the pediatric unit of Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, she learned how to coordinate a wide variety of moving parts and align them within a team environment for a comprehensive approach to healing.
