Shannon Wanless Email & Phone Number

Dr. Shannon Wanless is Director of the Office of Child Development, and a social-emotional learning and early childhood scholar. The Office of Child Development is a large university-community engagement center in the School of Education, that is focused on ensuring that all children and families thrive. For more news about the Office of Child Development, visit https://www.ocd.pitt.edu/, like it on Facebook or Instagram, and subscribe to their quarterly newsletter https://linktr.ee/ocdpitt. Shannon began her career as a YMCA Summer Camp Director and a Head Start Teacher. She worked in urban and rural settings, and with children whose families showed incredible resilience in the face of the never-ending challenges of being refugees and being undocumented in the U.S. She earned a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of Michigan, a doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Sciences at Oregon State University and was a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching & Learning (CASTL) at the University of Virginia. Shannon was a Fulbright scholar for one year in Taiwan and researched the ways that social-emotional skills and self-regulation develop in a collectivist culture. Having been in Pittsburgh for over a decade, Shannon continues to focus on building community and social change among adults that are helping young children thrive. She explores ways that children, preservice teachers, and professionals develop future-building skills and how to create classroom, school, and organizational climates that reflect these practices. Shannon currently teaches Attentional Teaching Practices (ATP), PSYED 1004, which is part of the CASE program for early childhood preservice teachers.